Tuesday, 6 November 2012

Strong Organic Acids

Author: johnharmer

Organic means derived from living organisms. In chemistry it applies to a wider term and that is connected to carbon.So the chemistry of carbon is organic chemistry.

How did the meaning took twist in chemistry?

When biochemicals were first discovered,,it was believed that they are with 'vital foce' and as such it was believed that it is impossible to create such chemicals synthetically.Thus chemicals and chemistry related to life were termed as organic.
Introduction to strong organic acids

Subsequently thrugh various waves of innovations it was found that all these bio-compounds invariably contained one element,and that was 'Carbon'.

Even though later on many chemists were successful in synthetically deriving these compounds in laboratories,the name 'organic chemistry' became synonymous with carbon compounds.So in relation to chemistry organic means study of carbon and its compounds.It is a very vast feild.
Understand cbse 10th question papers is always challenging for me but thanks to all math websites to help me out.
Why a Separate Branch has been Earmarked for Organic Chemistry?

Carbon has valency of four.It is neither extremely electronegative or electropositive.

This enables carbon to form single,double and even triple bonds with other carbon as well as atoms like hydrogen,oxygen,nitrogen,etc.

Carbon therefore can easily form chains,branched chains and also saturated or unsaturated ring structures.

This are the reasons why carbon is versatile and forms millions of compounds.Hence it became imperative to create a separate branch of organic chemistry to study carbon compounds.
Strenth of Organic Acids

The compounds with general formula R-COOH are called organic acids.They are also called carboxylic acids.R is an alkyl group like CH3,C2H5 etc..

By strong acid,it is meant that there is strong dissociation of the acid giving more H+

R-COOH -----------> R-COO- + H+

Thus it entirely depends on the ' R ' group whether the acid is strong or weak.

e.g..If R = CH3

then CH3COOH will not be strong acid as the - CH3 group is not facilitating release of the H+ ion very easily.

However if one or two or three chlorine atoms [which are strongly electronegative],are substituted for the hydrogen atoms in the 'R' group,it facilitates the release of H+ very easily,making it a strong organic acid.

CCl3COOH, CHCl2COOH, CF3COOH,

CH3SO3H, CF3SO3H, and p-CH3C6H4SO3H.are also strong organic acids as they produce H+ in high concentration.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

 
Design by Free WordPress and Blogger Themes | Flash File | latest news | Tutorials | Blogger Tips