Earlier in the semester, or perhaps in your Chem II class, you learned about acid-base titrations which were used to determine the concentration of an acid or a base. For this, we are using a standard solution (titrant) which is … Read more
In this set of practice problems, we will work on examples correlating the acidity and basicity of a solution with pH, calculating the pH of strong and weak acids and bases, the pH and pOH relationship, and calculating the pH … Read more
In the previous two posts, we talked about the acid-base strength and their quantitative description using Ka, pKa, Kb ,and pKb. Now, sometimes, we need to do calculations which can be made easier if we find a way to link … Read more
Strong Bases The most widely used strong bases in general chemistry are the hydroxides of alkali (group 1A) metals such as KOH (caustic or just potash), NaOH (caustic soda), and LiOH. Just like the strong acids, we recognize them by … Read more
Acids are classified as strong and weak depending on the extent of their ionization. For example, hydrochloric acid is a strong acid because it completely dissociates in aqueous solutions. HCl(aq) + H2O(l) → H3O+(aq) + Cl–(aq) or HCl(aq) → … Read more
This is a summary practice problem set on buffer solutions aimed to help identify buffers, calculating the pH of a buffer solution prepared from a weak acid and its conjugate base or vice versa. The links to the corresponding topics … Read more
Definition of acids and bases, identifying them along with the conjugate acid and conjugate base, pH of strong and weak acids and bases, the pH and pOH relationship, Ka and Kb, pKa and Ka correlation, the acid-base properties of salts, … Read more
The Henderson–Hasselbalch equation shows the correlation of the pKa and pH of the buffer solution. The pKa of a given acid, or the conjugate acid of the base, is constant and therefore, the only variable in the equation is the … Read more
The common ion effect is an example of the Le Châtelier’s principle when altering the equilibrium by changing the concentration of a component. Remember, adding a reactant produces more product by shifting the equilibrium to the right, and adding a product, … Read more
In the previous post, we talked about the pH of buffer solutions and the two approaches to calculating it. Let’s now discuss how to prepare a buffer with a given pH. So, we need to choose a proper acid/base pair … Read more
