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
We're at a warmer temperature than
We know that the limiting molar conductivity,
Thus, it is weighted by the fraction of dissociation
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
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
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