Question

Acetic acid is a weak acid because:

• A. Its aqueous solution is acidic.
• B. It gets highly ionised in water.
• C. It gets weakly ionised in water.
• D. It contains four hydrogen atoms.

Answer 1

The correct option is C It gets weakly ionised in water.

Acetic acid (${\text{CH}}_3\text{COOH}$) ionise partially in water, hence, it is a weak acid. In other words, at any time in the solution, only about some percentage of the weak acid molecules have ionised into corresponding ions, while the rest remain as simple acid molecules in water.