Distinguish between a strong acid and concentrated acid?

1 Answer
Simon Moore
May 17, 2018

"Strong" refers to degree of ionisation, wholst "concentrated" refers to moles of acid per litre of solution (molarity).

Explanation:

A strong acid is one that fully dissociates to form #H_3O^+# ions in aqueous solution, where as a weak acid only does so partially.

A concentrated acid, on the other hand, is one that has a very high concentration of #H_3O^+# ions in aqueous solution.

The distinction is important, as you may have a low concentration of an acid that fully ionizes (such as 0.001M hydrochloric acid) which is a dilute strong acid.

Alternatively you can have a high concentration of an acid that only partially ionizes (e.g. 17M acetic) which is a concentrated weak acid.

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