CHEM 6C Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Sodium Acetate, Buffer Solution, Conjugate Acid
6 Apr 2017
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Human blood has a ph maintained at ph = 7. 4 because of a combination of carbonate, phosphate, and protein buffers. If the ph of the body gets too low, a serious condition known as acidosis occurs. Le chatelier meets acids and bases: the common-ion effect. The ionization of a weak electrolyte is suppressed by adding more of an ion that is a product of this ionization. Example: addition of sodium acetate to acetic acid. A buffer is a mixture of a weak acid and its conjugate base or a weak base and its conjugate acid. It is resistant to ph changes, even when strong acid or strong base are added. By itself a weak acid (which partially ionizes) does not contain sufficient conjugate base to be a buffer. The same is true of a weak base and its conjugate acid. A buffer must contain significant amounts of both acid and base components.
