Question

Which of the following acids is not found in acid rain?
i) Carbonic acid
ii) Sulphuric acid
iii) Nitric acid
iv) None of the above

Answer 1

Hint: We have to know that Arrhenius is one of the concepts for acid and bases. Swedish chemist Arrhenius is the world's first chemist to talk about acid and bases. Depending on his concept and limitations later so many concepts are developed. Even Arrhenius is the birthplace of the concept of acids and bases. Followed by Arrhenius chemist the concept of acids and bases discuss Bronsted and Lowry in the world.
According to the Arrhenius concept, one substance said to acid means, acid is nothing but a substance that dissociates to give hydrogen ion when decomposed in the water.
Examples of Arrhenius acids are hydrochloric acid (\[{\text{HCl}}\]), sulphuric acid (\[{{\text{H}}_{\text{2}}}{\text{S}}{{\text{O}}_{\text{4}}}\]), nitric acid (\[{\text{HN}}{{\text{O}}_{\text{3}}}\]) etc,.

Complete answer:
The carbon dioxide reacts with water to form carbonic acid in rain.
The sulphur trioxide reacts with water to form sulphuric acid in rain.
The nitrogen monoxide reacts with water to form nitric acid in rain.
The mixture of carbonic acid, sulphuric acid and nitric acid in rain water is called acid rain.
According to the above discussion, we conclude carbonic acid, sulphuric acid and nitric acid in acid rain.

Hence, option D is the correct answer because all the given acids are present in acid rain.

Note:
We have to remember that in generally, pH value of all acids are in between \[{\text{0}}{\text{.9}}\]-\[6.9\] and all the bases are in between \[7.1 - 14.0\]. But, Arrhenius theory has some limitations. One of the main limitations is not being able to explain the behaviour of acids and bases in non-aqueous solvents such as acetone etc,. It is not able to explain the acid which doesn't contain hydrogen and bases don’t contain hydroxyl ion in the formula. Ammonia is a well known base that is not accepted as base in Arrhenius base. These limitations are recovered by further coming theories like the Bronsted and Lowry concept of acids and bases.