Question

A student had 1.00 L of a 1.00 M acid solution. Much to the surprise of the student, it took 2.00 L of 1.00 M NaOH solution to react completely with the acid. Explain why it took twice as much NaOH to react with all of the acid. In a different experiment, a student had 10.0 mL of 0.020 M HCl. Again, much to the surprise of the student, it took only 5.00 mL of 0.020 M strong base to react completely with the HCl. Explain why it took only half as much strong base to react with all of the HCl.

Answer 1

1. A diprotic acid was neutralized.

2. HCl has the ability to accept two protons.

Step-by-step explanation:

Hello,

Neutralization chemical reactions are better quantified by using equivalent grams instead of moles since they define the mass of a given substance which will neutralize the other substance, thus, in the first, experiment, 1 mole of NaOH has 1 equivalent grams since there's just one hydroxile in its structure, on the other hand, as 2.00 L of a 1.00 M solution of NaOH were needed to neutralize 1.00 L of a 1.00 M solution of an acid, one concludes that the acid was diprotic, it means that it has two hydrogens in its structe.

In such a way, in the second experiment, it was the other way around but by using the hydrochloric acid as it has the ability to accept two protons, it means that the base had two hydroxile ions in its structure.

Best regards.