Titrations

[andie]

Hey!

 

I am doing a titration and I need to find out what the pH is. I need to combine sodium acetate and acetic acid together. What are the products of this reaction... is it water and what else????

[woelen]

Sodium acetate and acetic acid are conjugate base and acid. The only thing they do is form an equilibrium. The mix of the two forms a buffering solution, with pH depending on concentration of the two chemicals.

 

It makes no sense to titrate sodium acetate with acetic acid, nor the other way around.

[andie]

actually for this titration i need to know the volumes of the sodium acetate and acetic acid that will make a pH of 5.0 and 4.70. I know that sodium acetate is 1.0 M and acetic acid is 1.0M with a volume of 15.0 mL ...

 

Therefore how would you calculate the volume of sodium acetate needed when you have the volume of acetic acid?

[Borek]

Start with learning about Henderson-Hasselbalch equation. Then check buffer pH question 1 and buffer pH question 2 - although they don't address specifically your problem, they show how to deal with buffer preparation. Acetic buffer case is not different.