Questions on chemistry

[sciart]

Today my teacher told us things about naming the acids but I get confused.

 

'Acid - an electrolyte which ionizes in water to give H+ (aq) as the only cation' quote from my notes.

 

What does ionizes mean in here ? So it is an electrolyte? what's that?

 

Can you explain to me , please.

 

cheers

[RyanJ]

Ionize is to remove an electron, in this case the hydrogen ion has lost an electron so it has been ionized.

 

The definition for an electrolyte is a substance that dissociates into free ions when dissolved or molten. Lets take HCl for example:

 

[ce]HCl_{(aq)} <=> H_{(aq)}^{+} + Cl_{(aq)}^{-}[/ce]

 

Make sence?

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones