H2SO4 is most commonly called sulfuric acid. It is a classic strong mineral acid that readily mixes with water and is commonly used in industrial chemical processes due to its cheap production cost. It consists of a sulfate polyatomic anion (SO4-2) which has a -2 negative charge. This anion is electronically offset with two protons (H+) to make a neutral chemical species. These protons are what make sulfuric acid highly acidic. Concentrated sulfuric acid is 98% H2SO4 and only 2% water.
Sulfuric acid is the rare strong acid that has more than one acidic proton. The loss of the first proton produces HSO4- via the equation below.
H2SO4 --> H+ + HSO4-
The HSO4- species is also acidic and can lost its other proton to produce the sulfate anion via the equation below.
HSO4- --> H+ + SO4-2
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