CHEM 2323 Study Guide - Conjugate Acid, Organic Chemistry, Elementary Charge
Document Summary
If you remember from general chemistry, there are 3 types of acids: arrhenius, bronsted, and lewis. Also, there are 6 strong acids: hcl, hbr, hi, hno3, h2so4, and hclo4. However, in organic chemistry, we are concerned with bronsted definition: the ability of an acid to donate a proton. What defines how acidic something is in organic chemistry is the stability of the conjugate base formed (which is a carboanion). The more stable the conjugate base is, the more likely that the acid will be willing to donate a proton. There are some general criteria to be considered when determining which substances are more acidic when compared to others: resonance: for organic chemistry, resonance is the biggest contributor to stability of the conjugate base. The more resonance structures that a compound has, the greater the ability that the compound can delocalize the negative charge across the entire compound.
