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Topic: Pka levels  (Read 1529 times)

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Offline Monium101

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Pka levels
« on: July 04, 2014, 02:45:15 AM »
From my understanding, if a compound such as HCOOH has a pka of 3.8 and another compound has a higher pka level, then the HCOOH is the stronger acid so how can this be related to their bases? The more stable a base is, the stronger its conjugate base is so in this case who would have the weaker base?
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Offline salteen

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Re: Pka levels
« Reply #1 on: July 04, 2014, 03:20:29 AM »
The strength of acids and their conjugate base is inversely proportional - The stronger the acid, the weaker its conjugate base will be. So if you were to compare HCOOH with, say, HCN (pKa ~9.4), CN- is the stronger conjugate base compared to HCOO-.  This is because the HCOO- anion is more stable than the CN- anion, so it has less of a drive to retake the proton it donated.

Hope this answers your question.
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Offline Borek

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Re: Pka levels
« Reply #2 on: July 04, 2014, 04:22:42 AM »
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