Answer: H₂SO₄ is the chemical formula that represents sulfuric acid.
Explanation:
1) H stands for hydrogen and H₂ means that each unit contains two atoms of hydrogen.
2) S stands for sulfur. Since there is not subscript, means each unit contains one atom of sulfur.
3) O stands for oxygen, and O₄ means that each unit has four oxygen atoms.
4) The way the compound is build up is the S atom at the center with two double bonds to each to one atom of O, and two single bonds one to each OH ion.
5) Sulfuric acid is a strong acid, so it dissociates in water and alghough the formula H₂SO₄ is used to represent it, the aqueous solution is formed by ions: HSO₃⁻, H⁺, SO₄²⁻, and OH⁻, as represented by these dissociation equaitons show:
1) H₂SO₄ ⇄H⁺ + HSO₄⁻ first dissociation
2) HSO₄⁻ ⇄ H⁺ + SO₄²⁻ second dissociation
So, H₂SO₄ is one form to represent sulfuric acid.
