Question

Why does equilibrium shifts to favor production of weak acid?
I thought of it a lot and kind of got to conclusion (since I found nothing on internet explaining to why is it like this)
So I thought this way
If a strong acid makes a weak conjugate base
& a weak conjugate base doesn't want the proton
while we need it to take a proton to get it neutralized or partially neutralized (depending on the forward reaction, since we need forward & backward to get a same ending result which is neutralized or partially neutralized)
thus equilibrium shifts to favor the side where the weak acid is
which means increase its production/concentration which in turn means increase chances of successful collision between acid proton and the weak base which originally doesn't want a proton. Thus, that weak base will end up getting fully or partially neutralized just as required to maintain the equilibrium.
hm so that is the conclusion i got to
does my thinking make sense?

Answer 1

@aaronq @Kainui @abb0t @chmvijay

Answer 2

What is the actual reaction you're thinking about?

Answer 3

err there is no actual reaction
more like i just looked at equilibrium reactions and got to this conclusion as its a so called rule that equilibrium shifts to favor production of weak acid

Answer 4

I don't know if i actually make sense or not, but i want to understand why it's like this
i searched it up & found nothing satisfying T_T

Answer 5

but its in acid vs base equilibrium

Answer 6

hm i don't think you can make that generalization. I mean, it really depends what the reactants are and their concentrations. What were these eq. reactions you looked at?

Answer 7

its just in my lecture

Answer 8

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Answer 9

OH, okay. You have to compare how stable the conjugates bases/acids are.

The conjugate base of the strong acid is much more stable than the conjugate base of the weak acid, this is due to induction and resonance (in other words, structure, bonding, nature of the acidic atom, neighbouring atoms or groups).

Are you familiar with induction and resonance stabilization?

Answer 10

hmmmmm like maybe a bit

Answer 11

hm so in general terms, it's about masking positive charge by distributing/sharing electrons density - electronegativity of atoms also comes into play.

It would probably benefit you more if you looked on youtube for a bunch of videos on this, then tried some examples yourself. Just because drawing here is painful. If you still dont get it, then ask again :P

An important note on general acid/base stability. Look at the conjugates NOT at the original acid/bases themselves.

Answer 12

hmmm so i have to wait till we get into details T_T

Answer 13

+what exactly should i write on youtube though?

Answer 14

um you can try

acid base organic chemistry

resonance and inductive effects

Answer 15

If i come across something good i'll post it

Answer 16

thanks!!!

Answer 17

What is an acid to begin with? Generally speaking, it's just a proton donor.

So now if you look at strong and weak acids, what's the difference? Strong acids give up their protons really well while weak acids don't. In this sense, we can think of weak acids as also being protonated bases since strong bases that have gained their hydrogen are less likely to give up the hydrogen they just got, making them weak acids.

I can explain this much better when you're around, just message me. Or even better you can explain it to me and maybe you'll realize that you know it when you do haha. Just to try to help a little more since I think I sort of see where your problem is, it's sort of that beginning understanding of what it truly means to be an acid or a base. Really nothing is purely just an acid or base, it's more like a spectrum of possibilities. A good example is just water, H2O because it can gain and lose hydrogen meaning it is both an acid or a base depending on what happens to it. It is only really ever truly an acid or a base when it is involved in a reaction. "Being" an acid or a base is more of a perspective of looking at how something behaves in a reaction.

Answer 18

hmm i see kinda
i get everything of what you said here but it still doesn't really tell why equilibrium shifts to favor a weak acid
well i basically thought that because weak acid doesn't really want to give up its proton if the concentration of the acid is increased probably there will be higher chances of some of them giving up their proton, i just thought of collision theory+ equilibrium
meaning the higher the concentration of the weak acid and something else that it has to react with/ just lose a proton to it, the more and stronger (with bigger force) are the collisions between them, thus there is a higher chance of getting the weak acid to give up its proton

Answer 19

that's basically what i came up with @Kainui

Answer 20

Yeah that sounds right to me. =)

Answer 21

thnx :* @Kainui