Very briefly explain why H 2 SO 4 is such a strong acid. We can analyze the acidity of sulfuric acid by recalling that a strong acid has a weak conjugate base. Recall the role of a base is to share an electron pair with a proton. In class we discussed four factors that may influence the base's ability or driving force to share this electron pair. The first factor is resonance.
Bisulfate ion has significant resonance as shown below.
This resonance stabilizes the negative charge, reducing the driving force for bisulfate to share the electron pair, and thus making it a poorer base. Very briefly explain. As described in the previous question, we can analyze acidity by examining the conjugate base. The conjugate base in this case is FSO 3 - . Not only does this ion have the same resonance stabilization as bisulfate ion, but it also has a further reduction in the negative charge density due to the inductive effect of the fluorine atom.