Question

Identify each of the following household substances as a strong electrolyte, weak electrolyte, or non-electrolyte: salt solution (in water), sugar solution (in water), bleach, vinegar, and baking soda solution (in water). Give reasoning for your assignment.

Answer 1

Answer:

Electrolytes are substances that can ionize in water. They could be acids, bases or salts as long as they give ions when they dissolve in water.

Explanation:

• Strong electrolytes completely ionize when dissolved in water, leaving no neutral molecules. The strong electrolytes here are: salt water, baking soda (NaHCO3) solution.
• Weak electrolytes do not completely dissociate in solution, and hence have a low ionic yield. Examples of this would be vinegar and bleach (which could be sodium hypochlorite or chlorine, which are weakly dissociated).
• Non-electrolytes will remain as molecules and are not ionized in water at all. In this case, sugar solution is a non-electrolytes, even though sugar dissolves in water, but it remains as a whole molecule and not ions.