Acids, Bases, and Chloric Acid Research Paper

Martn Prez

Colegio Bolvar

Date: May 31st, 2017

ACIDS, BASES AND CHLORIC ACID RESEARCH PAPER PREZ, MARTN

Introduction to Acids and Bases 3

Arrhenius Theory of Acids and Bases 6

The problem with the Arrhenius Theory 7

Brnsted-Lowry Theory of Acids and Bases 7

Lewis Theory of Acids and Bases 8

Chloric Acid 9

Properties 9

Synthesis 10

Electrochemistry and chloric acid 11

Conclusion 12

References 13

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Introduction to Acids and Bases

Acids and bases through the development of chemistry have been characterized by

various scientists in order to define them. In essence, they are sour tasting, corrosive substances

that will neutralize basic substances in terms of pH. Basic substances or bases (also referred to as

alkalis or alkaline) on the other hand are slippery substances that neutralize acids. That is what

Robert Boyle said about these types of substances in 1661 (Bodner, 2001a). Common acids are

citric acid, sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid. Common bases are sodium hydroxide, potassium

hydroxide and calcium hydroxide (British Broadcasting Company [BBC], 2009). Substances are

classified into acid or base with its pH. The pH scale goes from 1 through 14 with the center being

7. Anything over 7 is a substance with basic properties and anything below 7 is a substance with

acidic properties. Pure water has a pH of 7, meaning it is neutral (Broderick, Moussa, & Clark,

2017).

The pH of an acid can be calculated using logarithmic functions if the molar concentration

of hydronium or hydroxide ions is known (Bodner, 2001b). Molar concentrations measure the

amount of solute in a volume of a solution using the number of moles of solute per liter of solution

(Helmenstine, 2017). For example, a 0.20 M solution contains 0.20 moles of solvent in a liter of

that solution.

When an acid is added to water, the concentration of hydronium ions will increase and

the concentration of hydroxide ions will decrease. Adding a base, will do the inverse. Regardless

of the pH of the solution, the product of the concentration of both ions will be 1.0x10-14, as can be

seen on the equation below:

[H3O+] [OH-] = 1.0 x 10-14(Bodner, 2001b)

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Concentration (mol/L)

[H3O+] [OH-]

1 1 x 10-14

1 x 10-1 1 x 10-13

1 x 10-2 1 x 10-12

1 x 10-3 1 x 10-11 Acidic Solution

1 x 10-4 1 x 10-10

1 x 10-5 1 x 10-9

1 x 10-6 1 x 10-8

1 x 10-7 1 x 10-7 Neutral Solution

1 x 10-8 1 x 10-6

1 x 10-9 1 x 10-5

1 x 10-10 1 x 10-4

1 x 10-11 1 x 10-3 Basic Solution

1 x 10-12 1 x 10-2

1 x 10-13 1 x 10-1

1 x 10-14 1

Figure 1: Pairs of Equilibrium Concentrations of H3O+ and OH- Ions That Can Coexist in Water. Taken from
pH, pOH and K, (Bodner, 2001b).
The figure above shows what the concentrations are for each of the ions that define

whether a substance is acidic or basic. However, this data is impossible to plot on a graph the data

of the table, so in 1909, Sorenson proposed to use logarithmic mathematics to make a scale for

these concentrations. Since concentrations of the ions are less than or equal to 1, the logarithm of

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the concentrations would evaluate to a negative number. Therefore, he added a p to it indicating

there was a negative, so that pH, for example would be the negative of the logarithm of the

hydronium concentration. On the other hand, pOH would be the negative of the logarithm of the

hydroxide concentration. The function to find pH and pOH are the following:

pH = - log [H3O+] and pOH = - log [OH-] (Bodner, 2001b)

Acids and bases are classified as either strong or weak and as concentrated or dilute.

Strong acids or bases are the ones that will ionize or disassociate completely in water. A weak acid

or base will only partially ionize in the solution. Concentration and acid strength have no

correlation at all. A concentrated acid or base will have a high concentration, meaning it will have

a high number of moles of the acid per liter of solution. For example, a 0.1M solution would not

be a concentrated solution but it would be a dilute solution instead. On the other hand, a 10M

solution would be concentrated, (Cooper & Klymkowsky, 2017).

Cooper and Klymkowsky, 2017, also claim that in the everyday use of the terms

concentrated, dilute, strong and weak, people tend to use them interchangeably so a highly

concentrated coffee might be referred to as a strong coffee but when it comes to acids, they are

different terms.

The final classification for acids and bases can be the terms of amphoteric and

amphiprotic. A substance which can act as an acid or a base, depending on the reaction, is an

amphoteric substance. From that term, derives the other term, amphiprotic. This term refers to a

substance which can both, donate and accept hydrogen ions. All amphiprotic substances will be

amphoteric. Lewis acids or bases, which you will know more about are substances that have

potential to be just amphoteric, (Clark, 2013).

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Arrhenius Theory of Acids and Bases

Svante Arrhenius proposed in 1884 that when an acid and a base dissolved in water, they

would release certain ions. An acid would release hydrogen ions, or H+. This process of

disassociation is modeled with this chemical equation:

HCl(aq)H+(aq)+Cl(aq)

An Arrhenius base will disassociate in water to form hydroxide ions instead of hydrogen.

This process can be seen with the following equation:

NaOH(aq)Na+(aq)+OH(aq) (Broderick et al., 2017)

Common Arrhenius acids include HCl, HCN, and H2SO4. Arrhenius bases include NaOH,

KOH, and Ca(OH)2 (Bodner, 2001a). As can be seen, all of the acids have hydrogen, so in effect,

they will release H+ ions, and all of the bases contain hydroxide, so these will release OH- ions. It

was mentioned earlier that acids can neutralize bases. When acids neutralize, they form water. This

is because when the hydrogen ions combine with hydroxide, they form H2O. The process of

neutralization can be seen with this equation:

H+(aq) + OH-(aq)H2O(l) (Bodner, 2001a)

The complete equation would be to include the other components of the acid and the base.

In this case, the other product would be a salt. The general equation for this type of reaction is:

Acid(aq) + Base(aq)H2O(l) + Salt(s)

Some examples of neutralization reactions are when hydrochloric acid reacts with sodium

hydroxide to form water and sodium chloride. In another reaction, sulfuric acid reacts with

ammonium hydroxide to form water and ammonium sulfate (Broderick et al., 2017).

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The problem with the Arrhenius Theory

The main problem with this theory is that it states that in order for substances to release

their respective ions depending on whether they are an acid or base, they must contain said ion.

This can be disproven by the compound ammonia. Ammonia is a weak base, and when in water,

it will indeed release hydroxide ions even though it does not contain them. This compound instead,

reacts with the water to form ammonium and hydroxide ions like in the following equation:

NH3(aq) + H2O(l) NH4+(aq) + OH(aq) (Broderick et al., 2017)

Brnsted-Lowry Theory of Acids and Bases

This theory proposes that acids will donate hydrogen ions to another ion or molecule, who

will act as the base when they receive it. This theory claims that water will disassociate and transfer

the hydrogen ion from one molecule to another, as can be seen in the equation below:

2 H2O(l) H3O+(aq) + OH-(aq)

With this model in mind, hydrochloric acid will not disassociate into hydrogen and

chloride ions and instead will donate the hydrogen ion into a water molecule and the chloride ion

will remain, (Bodner, 2001a). This is somewhat connected to the theory that free hydrogen ions

cannot exist in water, which says, the reason why the hydrogen ions react with water is because

the H+ ions cant be in the water for long. This is due to the hydrogen ion (which is just a proton)

having a positive charge but it being concentrated on the volume of the proton. This high charge

density attracts it instantly into the nearest negative charge. In this case, it will be the lone pair of

the oxygen in a water molecule (Broderick et al., 2017). This theory therefore makes more sense

since the Arrhenius theory says that the loose hydrogen ions will exist in the water.

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The Brnsted-Lowry acid is defined as any substance that will donate the hydrogen ion,

such as HCl in the HCl and water example. The Brnsted-Lowry base instead will be the hydrogen

ion acceptor like the water in the same example.

Brnsted-Lowry acids can be neutral charge compounds like the hydrochloric acid

reacting with ammonia, since the acid will give the proton (hydrogen ion) to the ammonia to form

ammonium and chloride. They can also be positive ions like an ammonium ion reacting with a

hydroxide, since the ammonium will give a proton to the hydroxide and form ammonia and water.

Finally, they can be negative charge ions like dihydrogen phosphate, which when reacting with

water, will donate the proton to it and form a hydrogen phosphate ion and hydronium.

The theory also states that any compound containing hydrogen with an oxidation number

of +1 has potential to be an acid. The theory also states that any compound that based on the Lewis-

dot structure, is able to receive a hydrogen ion, it can be a base. In order for that to happen, the

compound must have a lone pair of electrons, (Bodner, 2001a).

Lewis Theory of Acids and Bases

This theory states that acids act as electron pair acceptors and that bases will act as

electron pair donors. The definition does not mention hydrogen at all, unlike other theories. An

example of this theory is when ammonia combines with boron trifluoride to form H3NBF3,

(Broderick et al., 2017). Boron trifluoride is an exception to the rule of atoms having an octet, so

boron has 6 valence electrons in boron trifluoride and has a spot for a lone pair. Meanwhile,

ammonia has a lone pair. These are the Lewis-dot structures for both compounds:

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F B F H N H

F
H

Figure 2: Lewis-dot diagrams for BF3 and NH3. Made by me.

So in the final reaction, the lone pair from the ammonia will be shared with the boron in

a covalent bond, where the BF3 will act as the acid and the NH3 will act as the base, (Broderick et

al., 2017).

Chloric Acid

Properties

Formula HClO3

Elements Hydrogen, chlorine and oxygen

Molar mass 84.455 g/mol

Appearance Colorless

Reactivity 4th degree

Chemical classification groups Acids, Strong oxidizers

Figure 3: Chemical and Physical Properties of HClO3. Taken from Chloric Acid, (National Center for
Biotechnology Information [NCBI], 2001).
The NCBI (2001) claims this acid is useful for burning combustible materials as it will

accelerate said reaction and will also ignite most of said materials with contact. It also claims that

chloric acid is corrosive to metals and tissue. This acid can be used as a reagent in chemical analysis

and to make other chemicals. As many other acids and chemical compounds, this one is dangerous

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to operate, so many health warnings contain the usual information of avoiding contact as it might

be deadly, as well as many fire hazard warnings.

This acid is self-reactive as in concentrations greater than 40%, the substance will

decompose into various products. Known decompositions of this acids are the following chemical

equations:

8HClO3 4HClO4 + 2H2O + 2Cl2 + 3 O2

In the reaction above, chloric acid decomposes to form perchloric acid, water, chlorine

and gas.

3HClO3 HClO4 + H2O + 2 ClO2 (Greenwood & Earnshaw, 1994).

In the one above, the acid decomposes into once again, perchloric acid, water and chlorine

dioxide.

Synthesis

There are 3 ways to make chloric acid. Chloric acid can be produced by the reaction of

sulfuric acid and barium chlorate. The equation for the reaction can be seen below:

Ba(ClO3)2(aq) + H2SO4(aq) 2HClO3(aq) + BaSO4(s) (Lang, 2006)

This double replacement reaction combines both solutions of barium chlorate and sulfuric

acid to produce the chloric acid and precipitate barium sulfate. Another method for producing

chloric acid is heating hypochlorous acid for it to decompose, similar to how this acid decomposes

into a chlorine acid with more oxygen. The reaction can be seen below:

3HClO HClO3 + 2 HCl (Lang, 2006)

The third method involved ion exchange of various chlorates of the alkali metals. Kaczur

and Rolison (1993) claim that the acid was produced by ion exchanging a potassium chlorate

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solution and then the acid would precipitate. Then the solution was concentrated by vacuum

evaporation.

Electrochemistry and chloric acid

Woodard Jr, Cawlfield, Kaczur, and Mendiratta (1995) claim that during the start of the

90s decade, the need for chlorine dioxide (ClO2) increased because of certain regulations in paper

and pulp industries that led to the need of using an alternative method for their production. The

paper industry, for example, now uses chlorine dioxide for bleaching. Chloric acid was the way

companies are deciding to produce the chlorine dioxide, so now apart from the chemical methods

to produce it mentioned above, electrochemists are looking for a way to

Electrochemistry can also be used to produce chloric acid. A process of electrolysis of

HCl can make chloric acid when reacting with water and producing hydrogen ions and electrons.

This had to be done on solutions with concentrations of 0.005 0.008 mol/L or else the reaction

would yield less chloric acid. The equation for this process can be seen below.

HCl + 3 H2O HClO3 + 6H+ + 6e-

An electrodialytic process was also developed to produce chloric acid. Kaczur and

Rolison (1993) state, we are defining electrodialytic processes as those which employ and

separate ions using more than one type of ion exchange membrane in the unit cell configuration.

There are also other electrolytic processes involving two or three compartments. Finally, chloric

acid can be electrochemically produced by the anodic oxidation of hypochlorous acid.

The processes mentioned above involved many electrochemistry terms, so they are just

mentioned. The processes, however, are very elaborate.

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Conclusion

Chloric acid had not been that important of an acid. Even though it is strong, the available

information for this is not that much when compared to the other acids. Luckily, with the need of

this acid for the paper industry, the mass production of this for said uses has been researched by

scientists like Kaczur, Rolison, Woodward Jr, and Crawfield, just to mention a few. I can further

justify my claim of the lack of importance of the acid before the need for industrial uses with the

fact that in the papers these scientists produced, basic chemical properties had to be researched

about it, as I assume this wasnt already available for these scientists. The one use for this acid is

still relevant today, even though the research was done in the 90s, since we still use paper. It will

be interesting to find out what the future for chloric acid is, since the 2010 decade marks transition

from physical to an all-digital future, and if the need for paper decreases, so will the need for

chloric acid.

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References

Bodner, G. M. (2001a, February 1). Definitions of Acids and Bases, and the Role of Water.

Retrieved May 21, 2017, from

http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/topicreview/bp/ch11/acidbase.php

Bodner, G. M. (2001b, February 1). pH, pOH, and K. Retrieved May 21, 2017, from

http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/topicreview/bp/ch17/ph.php

British Broadcasting Company [BBC]. (2009, March 15). Acids and alkalis. Retrieved May 21,

2017, from

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_ocr_pre_2011/chemical_synthesi

s/acidsalkalisrev1.shtml

Broderick, C., Moussa, M., & Clark, J. (2017, February 12). Overview of Acids and Bases.

Retrieved May 21, 2017, from

https://chem.libretexts.org/Core/Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry/Acids_and_Bases/

Acid/Overview_of_Acids_and_Bases

Clark, J. (2013, November). Theories of acids and bases. Retrieved May 21, 2017, from

http://www.chemguide.co.uk/physical/acidbaseeqia/theories.html

Cooper, M., & Klymkowsky, M. (2017). Strong, Weak, Concentrated, and Dilute Acids and

Bases. In CLUE: Chemistry, Life, the Universe & Everything (pp. 152153). Retrieved

from

http://clue.chemistry.msu.edu/assets/sampleMaterials/CLUE%20Text%20May%202017.

pdf

Greenwood, N. N., & Earnshaw, A. (1994). Oxides of Chlorine, Bromine and Iodine. In

Chemistry of the Elements (2nd ed.).

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ACIDS, BASES AND CHLORIC ACID RESEARCH PAPER PREZ, MARTN

Helmenstine, T. (2017, March 29). How to Calculate Molarity of a Solution. Retrieved May 21,

2017, from https://www.thoughtco.com/calculate-molarity-of-a-solution-606823

Kaczur, J., & Rolison, J. (1993). Emerging Electrochemical Technologies ln Producing Chloric

Acid For Chlorine Dioxide Generation", in. Advances Ln Forest Products Environmental

And Process Engineering: The, 219248.

Lang, J.-P. (2006). Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine, & Astatine: Inorganic Chemistry. In Encyclopedia

of Inorganic Chemistry. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

https://doi.org/10.1002/0470862106.ia041

National Center for Biotechnology Information [NCBI]. (2001, February 1). Chloric Acid.

Retrieved May 21, 2017, from

https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/chloric_acid#section=Top

Woodard Jr, K., Cawlfield, D., Kaczur, J., & Mendiratta, S. (1995). New Process Applications

for Electrochemically Produced Chloric Acid. Modern Chlor-Alkali Technology, 6, 286.

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