3.

Result

Table 3.0: Buffer solution testing Conditions Before Adding HCl After Adding NaOH 5.5 5.45 4.89 5.35 pH Combine Method Mass Method 4.98 5.5

Table 3.1: Buffer solution testing Conditions Before Adding HCl After Adding NaOH 11.75 pH 7.8 4.9

Table 3.2 : Comparison of measured and calculated pH pH Value Condition Calculated 4.9 4.99 Measured Combine Method 5.35 5.5 Mass Method 5.5 5.45

Adding HCl Adding NaOH

4.0

Discussion

This experiment is to basically prepare a buffer solution. By this preparation, studies on calculation of acid-base chemistry have been done. This experiment also shows the effect of pH of buffer when acid and base has been added. Two different method of preparing buffer has been done which are mass method and combined method. Besides that, comparison has also been investigated between the changes of pH in buffer solution and deionized water after addition of an acid which hydrochloric acid or a base which is sodium hydroxide. First of all, it is necessary to clarify exactly the definition of buffer. Buffer solution is an aqueous solution consisting of a mixture of a weak acid and its conjugate base or a weak base and its conjugate acid. The solution has ability to resist changes pH upon the addition of small amount of either acid or bases (Chang, 2005).Buffer plays a very important role to biology and chemical system. One example of a buffer solution found in nature is blood. In order to prepare the buffer solution, the amount of citric acid and its conjugate base, sodium citrate is determined by calculating their weight as shown in calculation at section 4.0. The calculation for preparing buffer by using both methods is also completely shown in the section 4.0. The pH of both buffer solutions is measured and tabulated in Table 3.0. The measured pH are slightly different from the theoretical pH which is 5. Next is to test the effectiveness of the prepared buffer solution by adding acid or base to the solution and comparison has been made by using water. About 25 mL of buffer solution had been used and mixed with 1.0 mL of HCL and NaOH is added in the same manner by mixing 25 mL buffer solution with 1.0 mL of NaOH. The pH of buffer after adding HCl changed from 4.89 to 5.35 for combined method and from 4.98 to 5.5 for mass method. The calculation on changes of pH of buffer solution after addition of strong acid and strong base have been done and shown in section 4.0

The result is being compared and tabulated in table 3.2. The pH of buffer is expected to only change from 5 to 4.9 after the addition HCL. Theoretically when acid is added into the buffer solution, it introduced more hydrogen ions resulting from the dissociation of acid in water as shown in equation (1) below. HCl (aq) + H2O (l)
-

H3O+ (aq)+ Cl- (aq) --------- (1) -------- (2)

These hydrogen ions will then reacts with citrate ion which later formed citric acid as shown in equation (2). Thus, the hydrogen ion has been removed and preventing the pH of solution from decreasing into pH of acid. However as can be seen in the table of results, the measured pH is different with the calculated pH. This result may be explained by a number of different factors which leads to error of the experiment. On the other hand, when strong base is added to the buffer solution, the change of pH are from 4.89 to 5.5 for combined method and from 4.98 to 5.45 for mass method. While based on the calculation, the pH of buffer solution is calculated to change from 5 to 4.99. The theory is somehow the same. When based is added to the solution, it introduces hydroxide ions which react with hydrogen ions and citric acid and neutralize the hydroxide ions (Chang, 2005) .Therefore their concentration is reduced and hence the pH does not change much. Besides that, in order to show the function of buffer solution, another test has been conducted by adding HCl and NaOH into deionized water. The pH of deionized water is measured before and after the addition of acid or bases. Based on the results shown in table 3.3, it can be clearly seen that there is significant changes when strong acid and strong base is added into deionized water. From the initial pH of 7.8, the pH of deionized water turns into 4.9 when strong acid is added and pH of 11.75 when strong base is added. (reason) In theory the deionized water should have a pH of 7 due to lack of ions. However, when deionized water comes in contact with atmospheric carbon dioxide, its absorption of the gas produces carbonic acid, which can reduce the pH to minimum pH of 5.5(Alley, 2013). As mentioned previously, the pH of deionized water is 7 which proved that the pH meter that being used does not properly functioning.

The errors that occur in this experiment usually originated from the usage of pH meter as instrument to measure the pH of all the solution. During the experiment, the pH meter shows inconsistency of pH value when different pH meter is being used. In order to validate which pH meter is working at best performances, the measurement has to be done repeatedly. Consequence of this situation is that our prepared solutions might be contaminated. Other than that, the pH meter is also not calibrated properly. Some pH meter will also not working properly because they need ions to give accurate reading (Alley, 2013) Another factor that leads to inaccurate pH value is that the electrode of ph meter does not been rinsed properly after each measurement which cause the solution to be contaminated with the previous measured solution. Error in this experiment may also comes from the calculation using Herderson Hasselbalch and during the measurement of the acid and base weight as the weighing scale has been working for a long period of time and does not been guarded from wind.

What Is the pH of D.I. water?

By Robert Alley, eHow Contributor

Read more: http://www.ehow.com/about_6870748_ph-d_i_-water_.html#ixzz2uuBy4uP6

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