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Experiment No. 2
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I. Introduction
pH is a scale used to specify how acidic or basic a water-based solution is. Acidic
solutions have a lower pH, while basic solutions have a higher pH at room
temperature (25°C), pure water is neither acid nor basic and has a pH of 7.
Buffer is a solution that can resist pH change upon the addition of an acidic or
basic components. It is able to neutralize small amounts of added acid or base, thus
maintaining the pH of the solution relatively stable.
II. Objective(s)
III. Discussion
Some of the most important processes in chemical and biological systems are
acid-base reactions in aqueous solutions. As it is defined, Bronsted acid is a substance
capable of donating a proton, and a Bronsted base is a substance that can accept a
proton because of this it gave rise to the concept of conjugate acid-base pair, which
can be defined as an acid and its conjugate base or a base and its conjugate acid. The
conjugate base of a Bronsted acid is the species that remains when one proton has
been removed from the acid. On the other hand, a conjugate acid results from the
addition of a proton to a Bronsted base. Thus, every Bronsted acid has a conjugate
base, and every Bronsted base has a conjugate acid.
Water is a unique solvent. One of its special properties is its ability to act either as
an acid or as a base. This reaction is called autoionization of water and it can be
written as; 2H2O == H3O+ + OH-.
Soren Sorensen in 1909 proposed a more practical measure called pH because the
concentrations of H+ and OH- ions in aqueous solutions are frequently very small
numbers and therefore inconvenient to work with. The pH of a solution is defined as
the negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration (in mol/L): pH= -log [H 3O+]
or pH= -log [H+].
A pOH scale analogous to the pH scale can be devised using the negative
logarithm of the hydroxide ion concentration of a solution. Thus, the pOH can be
written as pOH= -log [OH-] its antilog is [OH-] = 10-pOH. Now consider again the ion-
product constant for water at 25°C: [H +][OH-] = Kw = 1.0 × 10-14. Taking the negative
logarithm of both sides, it obtained -(log [H+] + log [OH-]) = -log (1.0 × 10-14)
The acid-base properties of a solution with two dissolved solutes that contain the
same ion (cation or anion) is called the common ion. The presence of a common ion
suppresses the ionization of a weak acid or a weak base. The common ion effect is the
shift in equilibrium caused by the addition of a compound having an ion in common
with the dissolved substance. The common ion effect plays an important role in
determining the pH of a solution and the solubility of a slightly soluble salt. The pH
of a solution containing a weak acid, HA, and a soluble salt of the weak acid, can be
written as; HA(aq) == H+(aq) + A-(aq). The ionization constant Ka is given by Ka =
([H+][A-]) / [HA]. Rearranging the equation [H+] = Ka[HA] /[A-] and taking the
negative logarithm of both sides to obtain -log [H+] = -log Ka + log [A-] /[HA] so; pH
= pKa + log [A-] /[HA] where pKa = -log Ka and that is called the Henderson-
Hasselbalch equation a more general form of this expression is pH = pK a + log
[conjugate base] /[acid]. It is important to remember that the Henderson-Hasselbalch
equation is derived from the equilibrium constant expression. It is valid regardless of
the source of the conjugate base.
A buffer solution is a solution of a weak acid or a weak base and its salt; both
components must be present. The solution has the ability to resist changes in pH upon
the addition of small amounts of either acid or base. Buffers are very important to
chemical and biological systems. The pH in the human body varies greatly from one
fluid to another; for example, the pH of blood is about 7.4, whereas the gastric juice in
our stomachs has a pH of about 1.5. These pH values, which are crucial for proper
enzyme function and the balance of osmotic pressure, are maintained by buffers in
most cases. A buffer solution must contain a relatively large concentration of acid to
react with any OH- ions that are added to it, and it must contain a similar
concentration of base to react with any added H + ions. Furthermore, the acid and the
base components of the buffer must not consume each other in a neutralization
reaction. These requirements are satisfied by an acid-base conjugate pair, for example,
a weak acid and its conjugate base or a weak base and its conjugate acid.
IV. Conclusion
V. Reference
Wikipedia
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