pH of Hydrochloric Acid (HCl) Solution | Online Calculator

Hydrochloric acid (HCl) is a common acid used in the laboratory to make acidic solutions. Aqueous HCl solutions show low pH values because HCl is a strong acidic compound. You can easily check this by using a pH meter. In theoretically, pH value can be found by substituting concentration of HCl in the pH equation.


In this tutorial we will cover following sections.

  1. pH values of different concentrations aqueous HCl acid solutions
  2. Two online calculators to calculate pH value of HCl acid
  3. Solving a problem of how to calculate pH of HCl



pH values of different concentrations aqueous HCl acid solutions

Concentration (mol dm-3) pH
0.1 1
0.05 1.30
0.01 2
0.005 2.30
0.001 3
1 0

Online pH Calculator for HCl acid

According to the data you know, you can use a suitable calculator to calculate pH value.


When concentration is known in mol dm-3

you can enter the concentration of HCl acid in mol dm-3 and check the pH value.



Answer


Note: This online calculation is not suitable for very dilute solutions of HCl (such as 0.0000005 mol dm-3) because, those solutions give very low H+ ion concentrations. In those cases, pH value is very close to the neutral value of seven.



Calculate pH when density and weight fraction (w/w %) of HCl solution is known




Answer

Calculate pH of HCl using pH equation

Because HCl is a strong acid, it dissociates completely to H+ and Cl- ions in the water.

HCl → H+ + Cl-

According to the stoichiometric ratios, H+ concentration equals to the HCl concentration. Therefore, we can directly substitute HCl concentration to pH equation.


pH = -log10[H+(aq)]

We can write above equation for HCl as below.

pH = -log10[HCl(aq)]



pH of 0.1 mol dm-3 HCl solution

  • pH = -log10[0.1]
  • pH = 1

You can see, 0.1 mol dm-3 HCl solution is strong acidic solution because pH value is well below seven.



pH of laboratory HCl bottles

In the lab, there are concentrated HCl bottles. H+ concentration is very high in those solution. Therefore, pH value of these concentrated HCl bottles are very low values (negative pH values).

Concentration of laboratory concentrated HCl bottles is expressed as weight percentage (w/w%) as 36% , 36.5%, 37.


Calculate pH of following HCl solution. Data of concentrated HCl is given below.

  • density = 1.18 g cm-3
  • HCl w/w% = 36.5

  • From unit conversion, density = 1180 g dm-3

Because volume is not given, we can take volume as 1 dm3. As the next step, find the mass of that solution (1 dm3).

  • Mass of HCl solution = 1180 g

Now, mass of HCl in 1 dm3 is found. Weight fraction (w/w%) data is used.

  • Mass of HCl = Mass of solution * w/w %
  • Mass of HCl = 1180 * 36.5/100
  • Mass of HCl = 1180 * 36.5/100 = 430.7 g

Next, amount of HCl is determined by dividing HCl amount from molar mass of HCl.

  • Amount of HCl = 430.7 g / 36.5 g mol-1
  • Mass of HCl = 11.8 mol

Because HCl amount is found in 1 dm3 solution, that HCl amount become the concentration of HCl. Therefore, concentration of HCl is 11.8 mol dm-3.

  • pH = -log10[11.8]
  • pH = -1.07





Questions



ph value of concentrated hydrochloric acid

What is the Ka value of HCl acid?

Ka of HCl = 1 * 103 mol dm-3



How pH of hydrochloric acid solution is different from pH of hydrofluoric acid (HF)?

Hydrofluoric acid is a weak acid though Hydrochloric acid is a strong acid. Though, same concentration aqueous solutions were prepared, Hydrochloric acid shows much lower pH values than Hydrofluoric acid solutions.



How pH value is increased when HCl acid solution is diluted.

If HCl solution has a high concentration such 0.1, 0.01 mol dm-3, pH value is increased by 1 when concentration is reduced from 10 times. When HCl concentration is too low like 0.00000001, 0.000000001 mol dm-3, pH value is not effected very much due to dilution of HCl acid. If HCl concentration is very low, pH value is close to the seven (neutral solution)



You are given a 1 * 10-5 mol dm-3 HCl solution. When you add 1 cm3 drop from this HCl solution to a 999 cm3 distilled water, will pH value go beyond 7?

When you add 1 cm3 of drop of HCl to the 999 cm3 distilled wate volume, total volume become 1000 cm3. Therefore, HCl concentration is reduced by 1000 times. Therefore, HCl concentration relative to the HCl is 1 * 10-8 mol dm-3. Distilled water can give 1 * 10-7 mol dm-3 H+ concentration. Therefore, HCl does not effect for the water dissociation and H+ concentration can be considered as 1 * 10-7 mol dm-3 in aqueus solution.

Therefore, pH value is increaded from 5 to 7.