Conductivity of 0.001M acetic acid at a certain temperature is 5.07×10^-5 S/cm.if limiting molar conductivity of acetic acid at the same temperature is 390 S cm^2/mol.the dissociation constant of acetic acid at that temperature is?

1 Answer
Feb 11, 2018

We're at a warmer temperature than 25^@ "C".


We know that the limiting molar conductivity, Lambda_m^0, is simply the molar conductivity as if the electrolyte ionized completely. Lambda_m is the value measured normally...

Thus, it is weighted by the fraction of dissociation alpha (Eq. 7) to give the actual molar conductivity Lambda_m at the given concentration:

Lambda_m = alphaLambda_m^0

The conductivity you gave is not in the proper units yet.

5.07 xx 10^(-5) "S/""cm" xx cancel"1 L"/("0.001 mols") xx (1000 cancel"mL")/cancel"1 L" xx ("1 cm"^3)/cancel"1 mL"

= "50.7 S"cdot"cm"^2"/mol"

And now this can be compared to Lambda_m^0 to find the fraction of dissociation:

alpha = Lambda_m/Lambda_m^0

= ("50.7 S"cdot"cm"^2"/mol")/("390 S"cdot"cm"^2"/mol")

= 0.13

By definition, the dissociation of acetic acid is given by

"CH"_3"COOH"(aq) rightleftharpoons "CH"_3"COO"^(-)(aq) + "H"^(+)(aq)

with mass action expression

K_a = (["CH"_3"COO"^(-)]["H"^(+)])/(["CH"_3"COOH"])

Some fraction alpha of the starting concentration becomes the acetate and proton products, and that much is lost RELATIVE to 100% of the starting acid, so...

K_a = ((alphacdot["CH"_3"COOH"]_0)(alphacdot["CH"_3"COOH"]_0))/((1 - alpha)cdot["CH"_3"COOH"]_0)

= (alpha^2["CH"_3"COOH"]_0)/(1 - alpha) (cf. Eq. 21)

= (0.13^2 cdot "0.001 M")/(1 - 0.13)

And we obtain an acid dissociation constant of:

color(blue)(K_a = 1.94 xx 10^(-5))

at whatever temperature this is.

The actual value is around 1.76 xx 10^(-5) at 25^@ "C", and dissociation is endothermic, so a higher K_a means this temperature is warmer than 25^@ "C".