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Recitation:: Acid-Base Buffers & Titrations
Recitation:: Acid-Base Buffers & Titrations
1) Consider a weak acid, HA, with pKa = 6.00.
a) What ratio of conjugate base to conjugate acid, [A-]/[HA], is needed to make a buffer with pH = 6.00?
b) What ratio of conjugate base to conjugate acid, [A-] / [HA], is needed to make a buffer with pH = 6.50?
c) What ratio of conjugate base to conjugate acid, [A-] / [HA], is needed to make a buffer with pH = 5.50?
Recitation Distributed on Tuesday, November 7, 2017 Page 1 of 6
Chemistry 09-107: Honors Chemistry Carnegie Mellon University
d) Of the three above buffers, which has more resistance to addition of acid than addition of base?
When acid is added, it gets absorbed by A- through the strong K>>1 reaction: A- + H+ → HA
When base is added, it gets absorbed by HA through the strong K>>1 reaction: HA + OH- → A-
The buffer of part b has more A- than HA, so it can absorb more acid than base.
e) Consider 100. mL of a buffer with [HA] = 0.50 M and [A-] = 0.40 M. 100. mL of 0.10 M NaOH is added. What is the pH before
and after addition of the base?
Before addition
After addition of base and before any reaction, the dilution cuts all concentrations in half: [HA] = 0.25M [A-]=0.20 [OH-] = 0.050
HA + OH- → A-
I: 0.25 0.050 0.20
C: -0.05 -0.05 +0.05
K=∞ 0.20 0 0.25
f) Suppose you wanted to make a buffer with pH = 3.4 from one of the
conjugate acid/base pairs listed in the table to the right. Ideally, you would
like the buffer to have equal resistance to the addition of acid or base;
however, if forced to choose, you would rather have more resistance to acid
than base. Which conjugate acid/base pair would you choose.
With [HA] = [A-], pH = pKa. so the Ka value we want is:
For NNO2
pH > pKa so [HA] < [A-] more resistant to addition of acid
For HF
pH < pKa so [HA] > [A- ] more resistant to addition of base
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Chemistry 09-107: Honors Chemistry Carnegie Mellon University
We want [A-] = [HA], and we have access to the reagents for the following reaction:
We can work backwards. At the end of phase 1 reasoning, we want [A-] = [HA]. We don’t yet know what the concentrations will be,
only that they will be equal. So we will introduce a variable x for these concentrations [A-] = [HA] = x. We know the following for
our reaction table:
HA + OH - ⇌ A-
Initial ? ? 0
Change ? ? ?
K=∞ x 0 x
We can then work backwards. [A-] starts at 0 and ends up at x, so the change is x.
This table works for any value of x. So any 2:1 mix of HA and OH- will give us a 1:1 mixture of HA and A- as majority species. If
want a total volume of 100 mL, we can use V(NaOH) to indicate the volume of NaOH. The volume of HA is then 2V(NaOH). We
want a total of 100 mL so,
So a mixture of 66.67 mL of 1M HA and 33.33 mL of 1M NaOH will gives us 100 mL of buffer.
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Chemistry 09-107: Honors Chemistry Carnegie Mellon University
g) How would you make 100 mL of a buffer solution with pH = 6.50 from 1.0 M HA and 1.0 M NaOH, if pKa(HA) = 6.00? (Hint, this
is the same acid as on the first page, and the same conditions (pH and pKa ) as part (b)).
From part (b), we know want the majority species to be such that [A-] = 3.16 [HA]. We can assign the value of [HA] to the variable x.
In this case, the working back (from the K=∞ line up) gives:
HA + OH - ⇌ A-
Initial 4.16 x 3.16 x 0
Change -3.16 x -3.16 x +3.16 x
K=∞ x 0 3.16 x
The ratio of [HA] and [OH-] we want to mix together is then: [HA]/ [OH-] = 4.16x/3.16x = 1.31. To get 100 mL, we use:
V(HA) + V(NaOH) =100 mL
1.31 V(NaOH) + V(NaOH) =100 mL
2.31 V(NaOH) =100 mL
V(NaOH) = 43.29 mL
V(HA) = 1.31*V(NaOH) = 56.71 mL
2) Draw the titration curve for a weak acid (pKa= 6) titrated with NaOH. Label the following points.
a. Equivalence point
b. Buffer region where pH is controlled by [HA] and [A-]
c. [HA] is the only majority species
d. [A-] is the only majority species
e. [A-] and [OH-] are the majority species
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Chemistry 09-107: Honors Chemistry Carnegie Mellon University
3) A sample containing 50.00 mL of 0.1000 M hydrazoic acid (HN3, Ka= 1.9 x 10-5 ) is being titrated with 0.1000 M NaOH. Calculate
the pH when the following volume of NaOH has been added:
a. 0.00 mL - pH due to dissociation of the acid
b. 25.00 mL - this occurs @ ½ volume to the equivalence pt.
c. 50.00 mL
Phase 1:
Total volume = 100 mL [HA] = 0.05M [OH-] = 0.05M
HA + OH- ⇋ A-
initial: 0.05 0.05
change -0.05 -0.05 +0.05
K= ∞ 0 0 +0.05
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Chemistry 09-107: Honors Chemistry Carnegie Mellon University
Phase 1:
Total volume = 101 mL [HA] =50/ 100 * 0.1 = 0.0495M
HA + OH- ⇋ A-
initial: 0.0495 0.0505
change -0.0495 -0.0495 +0.0495
K= ∞ 0 1*10-3 +0.0495
Recitation Distributed on Tuesday, November 7, 2017 Page 6 of 6