Final answer:
To find the pH when methylamine is mixed with HCl, one must first determine the limiting reactant and measure the moles of each reactant. Then use the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation to calculate the pH, given the concentrations of the base and conjugate acid formed. The exact pH calculation requires the pKa value for methylamine, which is not provided.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the pH of the resulting solution when 45 mL of 0.432 M methylamine (CH3NH2) is mixed with 15 mL of 0.234 M HCl, one must first determine the reaction that occurs between the base (methylamine) and the acid (HCl).
Methylamine is a weak base and HCl is a strong acid. When mixed, they will react to form methylammonium chloride (CH3NH3+ Cl-) and water.
The reaction proceeds to completion due to the strong acid.
Next, we need to determine the limiting reactant.
We do this by calculating the moles of each reactant:
Moles of CH3NH2 = 45 mL * 0.432 M = 0.01944 moles
Moles of HCl = 15 mL * 0.234 M = 0.00351 moles
Since the moles of HCl are less than the moles of CH3NH2, HCl is the limiting reactant, and all of it will react with the CH3NH2.
This will leave us with some unreacted CH3NH2.
The buffer solution formed will contain the weak base (CH3NH2) and its conjugate acid (CH3NH3+).
We will use the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation to find the pH:
pH = pKa + log([base]/[acid])
In a real scenario, we would look up the pKa value, and then calculate the pH using the formula above, given the known concentrations of the base and conjugate acid after the reaction.