Buffers
Buffered solutions are quite important in chemical and biological
systems. A buffer allows for the
maintenance of a fairly narrow range of pH even while another reaction
is producing acids
or bases. Because a buffer is a mixture of a weak acid and its
conjugate base, it
can react with either acid or base to remove the acid or base from
solution. The functional pH range of
a buffer is described in the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation.
In order to solve
problems with buffered solutions, it is essential to have an intuitive
grasp of which acid-base
reactions are most likely to occur. In this section, we will learn how
to determine which reactions
are most likely to occur in buffer problems. The following
material is focused on problem solving and will require close attention to
details in problems and solutions presented.
