Evaluation of sources of acidity in rainwater using a constrained oblique rotational factor analysis

Hydronium and hydroxide ions are present both in pure water and in all aqueous solutions, and their concentrations are inversely proportional as determined by the ion product of water (Kw). The concentrations of these ions in a solution are often critical determinants of the solution’s properties and the chemical behaviors of its other solutes. Two different solutions can differ in their hydronium or hydroxide ion concentrations by a million, billion, or even trillion times. A common means of...

Acids are classified by the number of protons per molecule that they can give up in a reaction. Acids such as HCl, HNO3, and HCN that contain one ionizable hydrogen atom in each molecule are called monoprotic acids. Their reactions with water are:

The precipitation titration curve demonstrates the change in concentration of one reactant with the volume of titrant added. During the titration of chloride ions with silver nitrate, the precipitation titration curve is divided into three regions: before, at, and after the equivalence point. Before the equivalence point, low redissolution of the sparingly soluble silver chloride precipitate gives a low silver ion concentration. However, in the second region, representing the equivalence point,...

Polyprotic acids of the type H2M constitute two ionizable protons. As a result, on titration with a base, they exhibit two equivalence points in the titration curve. During titration, the species H2M, HM−, and M2− will be present in the solution at different points. The fractions of H2M, HM−, and M2− present at the various instances of the titration are denoted by α0, α1, and α2, respectively.
A graph with the alpha values is plotted against the volume of base added during titration. Here, a...

The titration of a weak acid with a strong base results in the formation of water and the conjugate base of the acid. For instance, titrating acetic acid with sodium hydroxide leads to the formation of water and sodium acetate. A solution of acetic acid and sodium acetate constitutes a buffer whose relative concentration at different stages of the titration is indicated by the α values, which represent percentages of the weak acid and its conjugate base.
The α0 and α1 values represent the...

The pH of a solution containing an acid can be determined using its acid dissociation constant and its initial concentration. If a solution contains two different acids, then its pH can be determined using one of several methods depending upon the relative strength of the acids and their dissociation constants.
A Mixture of a Strong Acid and a Weak Acid
In a mixture of a strong acid and a weak acid, the strong acid dissociates completely and becomes a source of almost all the hydronium ions...