Why are Arrhenius acids strong electrolytes?

1 Answer
May 13, 2018

The simple reason is because of the presence of ions.

Explanation:

Strong Arrhenius acids almost fully, if not fully dissociate into #H^+# ions in aqueous solutions, and so the resulting solution will be a soup full of ions. Because of the presence of ions, electricity is easily able to pass through one ion to the other, and so the solution becomes a strong electrolyte.

Looking at hydrochloric acid #(HCl)#, it will be a stronger electrolyte than hydrofluoric acid #(HF)#, as the hydrogen-fluoride bond is pretty strong, and not many ions will dissociate.