Strong and weak electrolytes

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Strong electrolytes include the strong acids, strong bases, and salts. These chemical completely dissociate into ions in aqueous solution.It is a solute that completely, or almost completely, ionizes or dissociates in a solution. These ions are good conductors of electric current in the solution.

Strong electrolytes:

The substances, in aqueous which ionize almost completely into ions are known as strong electrolytes. The unionized molecules are present to such a small extent that it is not of any significance to study the ionization constant of strong electrolytes. For example: HCl, H2SO4, HNO3, NaOH, KOH, NaCl etc. are strong electrolytes. The equation which involves the ionization of strong electrolytes is represented with only single headed arrow directed to the right. For example,

HCl + H₂O ———-> H₃O⁺ + Cl^–

HNO³²O ——-> H3O⁺ + NO3^–

Weak electrolytes:

The substances, in aqueous which ionize to a small extent into ions are known as weak electrolytes. For example: CH3COOH, NH4) OH, HCN etc. are weak electrolytes. In this case, the molecules are in equilibrium with their ions. The equation which involves the ionization of weak electrolytes is represented with double headed arrows. For example,

CH₃COOH + H₂O --> H₃O+ + CH₃COO–NH₃ + H₂O --> NH₄⁺ + OH–

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