Buffers Essay

In this lab, the purpose was to determine the stability of a substance after adding an acid or a base. The results claim that liver and buffer are the most resistance to change in pH. Looking at figure 3, buffer and liver both maintain a stable pH even with the addition of an acid or base. However, potato and water have less buffer in them since their pHs did change. In figure 3, the potato acid’s pH level decreased by two, and the potato base’s pH level increased by two. The level of pH of a water acid decreased by 4, while the water base’s pH increased by 5. These results all tie to the fact that buffer is a substance that maintains a stable pH; the presence of buffer in organisms help maintain homeostasis by binding or releasing hydrogen

2. To titrate a hydrochloric acid solution of “known” concentration with standardized 0.5M sodium hydroxide.

The procedure of this lab is to determine if liver and potato cells contain natural buffers that resist large change in pH as 1. NaCl or 1. NaOH are added to the solution.

pH was recorded every time 1.00 mL of NaOH was added to beaker. When the amount of NaOH added to the beaker was about 5.00 mL away from the expected end point, NaOH was added very slowly. Approximately 0.20 mL of NaOH was added until the pH made a jump. The pH was recorded until it reached ~12. This was repeated two more times. The pKa of each trial are determined using the graphs made on excel.

In this assignment you will be asked to rank aqueous solutions of acids, bases, and salts in order of increasing pH. This is most easily done by first identifying the strong acids that have the lowest pH, the strong bases that have the highest pH, and the neutral solutions that have a pH near 7. The weak acids

To start out this study the difference between acids and bases has to be identified. Acids have very low pHs and have a high concentration of hydronium ions, while bases have a high pH and have a high concentration of hydroxide ions. The difference between strong bases and acids, and weak bases and acids is the amount of dissociation. Strong bases and acids dissociate a large amount and let go of their ions in solution, while weak bases and acids may only let go of some of their ions. This is important because if the unknown solutions aren’t strong acids or bases then using their ions to calculate the pH of the solutions will give false results (Diffen 2012).

Three grams of a mixture containing Benzoic Acid and Naphthalene was obtained and placed in 100 ml beaker and added 30 ml of ethyl acetate for dissolving the mixture. A small amount (1-2 drops) of this mixture was separated into a test tube. This test tube was covered and labelled as “M” (mixture). This was set to the side and used the following week for the second part of lab. The content in the beaker was then transferred into separatory funnel. 10 ml of 1 M NaOH added to the content and placed the stopper in the funnel. In the hood separatory funnel was gently shaken for approximately one minute and vent the air out for five seconds. We repeated the same process in the same manner one more time by adding 10ml of 1M NaOH.

To improve the results from the experiment buffer solutions that were not whole pHs could have been used e.g. pH 4.5, 5.5 etc. This would have provided more reliable results as a wider range of results would have been produced. Using pHs with decimals would also help to more accurately determine the optimum pH as the optimum may have been above or below the pH stated in the hypothesis; 8. In this experiment however the optimum is taken at 8 because the graph does not rise again.

To make the buffer solution you need 0.2 mol dm-3 of Na2HPO4 and 0.1mol dm-3 of citric acid this will give 100cm3 of buffer. Here is how to get the different pH in the buffer solutions:

ii. The second part of the titration series involves titration of NaOH with Hydrochloric acid (HCL). Again, three reps of titration and a blank titration have to be completed. A volumetric pipet is used to measure 10.00mL of HCL into three labeled conical flasks. Then the flasks are filled with deionized water until about the 50mL mark. A buret is

Within an acid-base titration the titration curve resembles the strengths of the corresponding acids and bases. A strong acid will correspond with a weak conjugate base, and a weak conjugate acid will correspond with a strong base. This is based on the Bronsted-Lowry model. The weak acid will donate protons to the hydroxide ion. Weak acids will have a low Ka value, the Ka value is the tendency of the acid to dissociate:

The pH of a solution is the measure of the concentration of charged Hydrogen ions in that given solution. A solution with a pH lower than seven is considered to be acidic. A solution with a higher pH is a base. It is very important for organisms to maintain a stable pH. Biological molecules such as proteins function only at a certain pH level and any changes in pH can result in them not functioning properly. To maintain these constant pH levels, buffer solutions are used. A buffer solution can resist change to small additions of acids or base’s. A good buffer will have components that act like a base, and components that act like an acid.

For this experiment, titrations on a weak acid, acetic acid, and a buffer were performed. Acetic acid was titrated with NaOH in order to observe the half-equivalence point as well as the equivalence point. Then, the buffer and the buffered acetic acid solution prepared faced additional titration with NaOH and HCl to evaluate the differing buffering effects following the addition of a strong acid and strong base. Finally, the buffer’s buffering capacity was calculated. If the experiment were to be repeated, it would be interesting to observe the buffering effects following a titration between a weak base and a buffer instead with greater concentrations. The change in the concentration following the preparation of buffer with a weak base and its conjugate acid would pose for an interesting experiment to observe an increase in the buffering capacity.

2. Following solutions are added to the tubes and the pH of each tube is determined:

For this experiment, a pH meter was used so this part of the experiment began with the calibration of the pH meter with specified buffers. The buret was then filled with the standard HCl solution and a set-up for titration was prepared. 200g of the carbonate-bicarbonate solid sample was weighed and dissolved in 100 mL of distilled water. The sample solution was then transferred into a 250-ml volumetric flask and was diluted to the 250-mL mark. The flask was inverted several times for uniform mixing. A 50-mL aliquot of the sample solution was measured and placed unto a beaker. 3 drops of the phenolphthalein indicator was added to the solution in the beaker. The electrode of the pH meter was then immersed in the beaker and the solution containing the carbonate-bicarbonate mixture was titrated with the standard HCl solution to the phenolphthalein endpoint. Readings of the pH were taken at an interval of 0.5 mL addition of the titrant. After the first endpoint is obtained, 3 drops of the methyl orange was added to the same solution and was titrated with the standard acid until the formation of an orange-colored solution. Readings of the pH were also taken at 0.5 mL addition of the titrant.