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Chemistry Forums for Students => High School Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: fooballer on March 30, 2008, 08:00:29 PM

Title: is potassium carbonate a weak base or strong base?
Post by: fooballer on March 30, 2008, 08:00:29 PM

yeah, i need to konw this in order to answer a discussion question

thx

Title: Re: is potassium carbonate a weak base or strong base?
Post by: agrobert on March 30, 2008, 08:05:58 PM

Its strongly alkaline.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_carbonate

Title: Re: is potassium carbonate a weak base or strong base?
Post by: Kyle1990 on March 31, 2008, 12:30:31 AM

Consider this: Carbonic acid, H₂CO₃ is a weak acid. The conjugate base of a weak acid is a strong base. Thus the carbonate ion is a strong base. Since all group I compounds are soluble, potassium carbonate dissociates into K+ and CO₃^2-ions, just like carbonic acid. (But technically carbonic acid is unstable and decomposes into water and carbon dioxide.)