Final answer:
To calculate the pH of a 0.1 M sodium acetate solution, one must understand the hydrolysis of acetate ions to produce hydroxide ions, making the solution basic.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the pH of a 0.1 M solution of sodium acetate, we must first understand that sodium acetate (NaCH3COO) is a salt that forms from a weak acid (acetic acid, CH3COOH) and a strong base (NaOH). Upon dissolution in water, sodium acetate dissociates completely to produce sodium ions (Na+) and acetate ions (CH3COO-).
The acetate anion is the conjugate base of the weak acid and will react with water to form acetic acid and hydroxide ions (OH-). This is a hydrolysis reaction, and the resulting solution is basic due to the production of OH- ions.
The hydrolysis of the acetate ion can be represented by the equation:
CH3COO- + H2O → CH3COOH + OH-
To find the pH, we would need to calculate the pOH by using the equilibrium constant for this hydrolysis reaction (Kb), then subtract the pOH from 14 to get the pH. We would also need the Ka of acetic acid to do so, which isn't provided here.
However, given the result from an acetate buffer with equal concentrations of acetic acid and sodium acetate which has a pH of 4.74, we can infer that the pH of a 0.1 M sodium acetate solution would be slightly higher since there would be more availability of acetate ions relative to acetic acid, thus more OH- ions would be produced making the solution more basic.