Question

______ and _______ are weak electrolytes.

Answer 1

Weak electrolytes:

1. Substances that dissociate into ions to a lesser extent are called weak electrolytes.
2. Their solutions contain both ions and molecules.
3. A weak electrolyte is a solution in which only a small fraction of the dissolved solute exists as ions.
4. Water is also considered to be a weak electrolyte. That is, only a small fraction of the H₂O molecules in water dissociate to form ${\mathrm{H}}^{+}$and ${\mathrm{HO}}^{-}$ ions.
5. There are mainly two types of weak electrolytes; as follows:

A. Weak acids:

1. Weak acids like Formic acid, Acetic acids, etc do not dissociate completely.
2. The dissociation reaction is like

$\underset{\mathrm{Acetic}\mathrm{acid}}{{\mathrm{CH}}_3\mathrm{COOH}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Water}}{{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\left(\mathrm{l}\right)}\rightleftharpoons \underset{\mathrm{Hydrogen}\mathrm{ion}}{{\mathrm{H}}^{+}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Acetate}\mathrm{ion}}{{\mathrm{CH}}_3{\mathrm{COO}}^{-}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}$

B. Weak bases:

1. Weak bases like Ammonium hydroxide also cannot dissociate completely.
2. The dissociation reaction is like

$\underset{\mathrm{Ammonium}\mathrm{hydroxide}}{{\mathrm{NH}}_4\mathrm{OH}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Water}}{{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\left(\mathrm{l}\right)}\rightleftharpoons \underset{\mathrm{Ammonium}\mathrm{ions}}{{{\mathrm{NH}}_4}^{+}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Hydroxide}\mathrm{ions}}{{\mathrm{HO}}^{-}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}$

Therefore, weak acids and weak bases are weak electrolytes.