Titrations and buffers help, test tommorow

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nelo
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Buffers Test
AI Thread Summary
The discussion revolves around solving a buffer preparation problem involving a 25 mL solution of 0.10 M NH3 to achieve a pH of 9 by adding NH4Cl. The initial setup includes an ICE table to track concentrations of NH3, NH4+, and OH-. The user struggles with the calculations, particularly in determining the concentration of NH4+ needed. They attempt to use the Kb value for NH4+ and antilog methods but find their results inconsistent. A suggestion is made to utilize the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation, which simplifies the process by converting Kb to pKa and directly solving for the unknown concentration of NH4+. The importance of correctly using chemical notation is also emphasized to avoid confusion in calculations.
Nelo
Messages
215
Reaction score
0
I don't understand how to do this problem, but i Understand how to do the reverse of it.

"You have 25mL of 0.10M nh3 solution. How many grams of nh4Cl do you need to add to make a buffer with a ph of 9?) answer is 0.18M of nh4+.

What I've done is set up the initial table.
nh3 + h20 ----> nh4+ oh-
I 0.10 0.10
C-x +x x

edit::(this table is posting wrong.. but you get the point... x is on nh4 and oh h2o is neglected)
E0.10-10^-9 (keeping values same basically)

Second thing i did was solve x by doign the antilog of the -ph.
giving me 1*10^-9. which i believe is correct.

kb for nh4 is 1.8*10^-5.

I set up this : 1.8*10^-5 = 0.10x/ 0.10

End up getting the same answer as the constant. Cant be right, what am i doing wrong when the ph of the buffer is given?
 
Chemistry news on Phys.org
Nelo said:
I don't understand how to do this problem, but i Understand how to do the reverse of it.

"You have 25mL of 0.10M nh3 solution. How many grams of nh4Cl do you need to add to make a buffer with a ph of 9?) answer is 0.18M of nh4+.

What I've done is set up the initial table.
nh3 + h20 ----> nh4+ oh-
I 0.10 0.10
C-x +x x

edit::(this table is posting wrong.. but you get the point... x is on nh4 and oh h2o is neglected)
E0.10-10^-9 (keeping values same basically)

Second thing i did was solve x by doign the antilog of the -ph.
giving me 1*10^-9. which i believe is correct.

kb for nh4 is 1.8*10^-5.

I set up this : 1.8*10^-5 = 0.10x/ 0.10

End up getting the same answer as the constant. Cant be right, what am i doing wrong when the ph of the buffer is given?

Have you covered the Henderson Hasselbach equation in class?
 
No, we have not. we don't use pKa values at all. We simply have covered simple buffers. However I don't understand how to solve this question.. and apparently normal buffer questions when mol/L are different
 


Using ICE tables for buffer calculations - while sometimes possible - is a waste of time. There is a much better tool for that - Henderson-Hasselbalch equation.

This question is quite easy to solve - convert Kb to pKa (pKa + pKb = 14, pKb = -log(Kb)), plug everything given into HH equation, and solve for the only unknown - [HN4+].

Please don't ignore capital letters in formulas, they are there to avoid ambiguity. co doesn't meant anything as CO and Co are completely different things.
 
It seems like a simple enough question: what is the solubility of epsom salt in water at 20°C? A graph or table showing how it varies with temperature would be a bonus. But upon searching the internet I have been unable to determine this with confidence. Wikipedia gives the value of 113g/100ml. But other sources disagree and I can't find a definitive source for the information. I even asked chatgpt but it couldn't be sure either. I thought, naively, that this would be easy to look up without...
I was introduced to the Octet Rule recently and make me wonder, why does 8 valence electrons or a full p orbital always make an element inert? What is so special with a full p orbital? Like take Calcium for an example, its outer orbital is filled but its only the s orbital thats filled so its still reactive not so much as the Alkaline metals but still pretty reactive. Can someone explain it to me? Thanks!!

Similar threads

Back
Top