Question

Nitric acid, hno3, is a very strong acid. it is 100% ionized in water. in the reaction below, would the position of equilibrium lie to the left or to the right? no3-(aq) + h2o hno3(aq) + oh-(aq) select the single best answer.

Answer 1

The position of equilibrium for the reaction involving nitric acid will lie far to the right, favoring the production of HNO3 and OH-(aq). This is due to HNO3 being a strong acid and fully ionizing in water, while NO3- is a weak base.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question you asked is about the position of equilibrium for the reaction NO3-(aq) + H2O(l) ↔ HNO3(aq) + OH-(aq). Nitric acid, HNO3, is known to be a very strong acid that is 100% ionized in water. Given that HNO3 is a strong acid, its conjugate base NO3- is a weak base and has a much lower tendency to gain a proton than water (H2O) has to lose one. This means the reaction will lie very far to the right, favoring the production of HNO3 and OH-(aq).

This behavior is consistent with the concept known as the leveling effect, which indicates that strong acids in water are fully ionized to form hydronium ions (H3O+) and their corresponding anions, and thus cannot exist in aqueous solution as anything stronger than the hydronium ion. In this case, HNO3 will ionize in water to give H3O+ and NO3-, showing that NO3- will not readily recombine with H+ to form HNO3 again. The equilibrium is clearly on the side of dissolving nitric acid (HNO3) into its ions.

Answer 2

Answer is: the position of equilibrium lie to the left.
Chemical reaction: NO₃⁻(aq) + H₂O(l) ⇄ HNO₃(aq) + OH⁻(aq).
Because nitric acid is very strong acid, NO₃⁻ is it weak conjugate base.
This weak base reacts very little with water, but nitric acid reacts very easy with hyroxide ions producing NO₃⁻ and water, so there are more compounds on the left side of the reaction that on the right side.