46.8k views
3 votes
When dr. farrell was a graduate student, he once made up a ph 8.0 sodium acetate buffer. why would the casual observer to this buffering faux pas come to the conclusion that he had the intellectual agility of a small soap dish?

1 Answer

2 votes

I think the pKa for acetic acid is about 4.74. Therefore Acetic acid/acetate buffer will work best at 4.74 +/- 1 pH unit and so the pH 8 is far removed from that. Hence it would not buffer at that pH at all.

User John Yin
by
7.9k points
Welcome to QAmmunity.org, where you can ask questions and receive answers from other members of our community.