What is buffer?

The buffer is essentially a solution that is able to resist a change in pH at a specific

pH range so what I mean is there are certain buffers that are really good at
buffering and resisting change from let's say a pH of 2 to a pH of 3 and others may
be better at let's say a pH of 7 to a pH of 8 so the next question that is what's in a
buffer so let's take a look at that ok so now let's talk about what you have to put
into solution in order to make a buffer so there are essentially two criteria that have
to be met the first thing is you have to have a weak acid or a weak base in solution
so the point here is its weak so you cannot make a buffer with something like HCl
because that is a strong acid it would have to be something like HNO2 nitrous acid
because that's a weak acid the second thing that you'd need is you have to have that
weak acid or weak base conjugates salt essentially you have to have some kind of
salt that you put in the solution that contains the conjugate of that weak acid or
weak base so just to make sure everyone's on the same page when we say
conjugate a conjugate is a compound that differs by one proton so for example if
we take a look at this we have ammonia and ammonium and if you look at them
you can see that their formulas differ by one h+ and because of that these two
would be a conjugate pair okay so now
let's take a look at an example where we can actually utilize that information of
what's in a buffer to identify whether a combination of compounds is a buffer so
remember the two things we're looking for is one is everything in their weak no
strong substances and then secondly do we have a conjugate parent solution so let's
use those two criteria to run through this list so if you take a look at a the first thing
I look at is HCl so I recognize that HCl is a strong acid generally in your courses
you're gonna have either six to eight strong acids that your teachers ask you to
memorize and if it's not on that list then it's not a strong acid and you can assume
it's weak HCl is a strong acid so automatically you can disqualify this without
having to look any further whether you have a conjugate here because I know I
cannot make a buffer with a strong acid so then we move on here I look at HCL oh
so this here is a weak acid so that means first criteria is met so now I'm going to
take a look at this remember that this is a salt so this is going to break up into oh I
plus and clo2 - you might want to look at your polyatomic ions that you need to
memorize in order to figure out how you'd know how to split this up so now if I
take a look at this one I check to see is that the conjugate of this so remember
conjugate means they differ by one hydrogen and one hydrogen alone so this one
has one less hydrogen than this one does but this has two O's and this only has one
so this and this are not a conjugate pair so this one also would not be a buffer I take
a look at this first criteria do I have a weak acid yes I have a weak acid now look at
the salt this would break up into k+ + f- and i see that f - is the conjugate base of
this weak acid so that would mean that yes this one here is a buffer solution let's try
it one more time and take a look at this so now this here is a weak base remember
if you have something where you've got along the lines of an ammonia group
which is nh3 and those hydrogen's get replaced by ch3 groups or methyl groups
you're gonna have a base so this here would be a weak base so first criteria met
now I take a look at this salt so this salt would break up into CH 3 NH 3 plus and
Cl minus and I see that this here is the weak conjugate acid for this base here so
this here would also be a buffer so if you use those two criteria it can help you
really figure out whether or not a given compound when you put them together
would make a buffer solution
the proteins in our blood
00:13
have a problem they have to have a
00:15
specific pH and if it changes radically
00:17
out of this range between seven point
00:19
three five and seven point four five
00:21
they start to denature and they can't do
00:23
the job that they're intended to do
00:25
which is to carry oxygen and carbon
00:27
dioxide thankfully we can use a
00:29
buffering system so what happens is the
00:31
carbonic acid that it's created when we
00:34
add carbon dioxide to the water is a
00:36
weak acid and it has a conjugate base
00:39
and so that creates what's called a
00:41
buffer solution what does that mean if
00:44
we add more protons to it it'll simply
00:47
push it towards the left and if we add
00:49
more hydroxide to it it'll push it more
00:51
towards the right and so it keeps our pH
00:54
fairly stable and that's how solute
00:56
buffer solutions work so pH remember is
00:59
based on the protein availability it's
01:01
the concentration of that proton in
01:03
solution and so we want to keep that as
01:05
stable as we can and so we use a buffer
01:07
solution to do it which is essentially a
01:09
weak acid and its conjugate base and so
01:12
what's going to affect the pH of that
01:15
reversible reaction well the first thing
01:18
is the pKa which is going to be the
01:20
equilibrium constant and so if we can
01:23
keep that equal to our pH or around our
01:25
pH that's going to keep our pH stable
01:28
and also we could look at the
01:29
concentration of the acid that weak acid
01:31
to its conjugate base if we can keep
01:33
those values equal as well that's going
01:36
to increase the buffer capacity and
01:38
we'll look at that algebraically in just
01:40
a second but big picture what are we
01:42
doing here
01:42
well we've got a weak acid and a
01:45
reversible reaction that forms this
01:47
hydronium ion and then it's conjugate
01:49
base and so in a good buffer solution we
01:51
want the weak acid and the conjugate
01:54
base to be equal in values and so what
01:57
happens let's say we add hydronium to
01:59
that let's say we add a strong acid to
02:01
that well the shot leaves principle
02:04
tells us if we add more of it on this
de it's simply going to push it in the
02:07
other direction so it's going to push it
02:09
more towards that weak ass
02:10
side but since those values are equal
02:13
it's not going to change it that much
02:14
and our pH value is not going to change
02:16
very much as well if we look at adding a
02:18
base now if we add a hydroxide to it
02:20
what is it going to do simply going to
02:22
push it more towards the right and so
02:25
what happens is we can add strong acids
02:27
and we can add strong bases and it's can
02:29
to keep that pH around a stable set
02:32
point and so let's look at this as an
02:34
equilibrium equation and so if we look
02:37
at our equilibrium constant if we were
02:39
to write it out how do we do that again
02:40
it's simply going to be the
02:42
concentration of our two products over
02:45
the concentration of our reactant and so
02:48
if we do a little bit of manipulation
02:50
algebraically what we can do is isolate
02:52
the concentration of those hydronium
02:55
ions on the left side what is that
02:57
remember if we take the negative log of
02:59
that that's going to be our pH and we
03:01
want to keep that as stable as we can so
03:03
if it's a good buffer solution how do we
03:05
keep it as stable as we can well if we
03:07
keep our ka value equal to our
03:10
concentration of our hydronium ion or if
03:13
we keep our pH equal to our PKA value
03:16
that's going to create a good buffer if
03:18
one of those is much larger than the
03:20
other one changes in one will change the
03:22
other also we want to look at equal
03:24
concentrations of that weak acid and its
03:26
conjugate base and so if we can keep
03:28
those equal to one we can have large
03:31
changes in that tenfold changes in that
03:33
will only change the pH value a total of
03:36
1 and so we want to keep those values of
03:39
the weak acid and conjugate base equal
03:41
to each other and also we can use our
03:43
PKA values which is remember looking at
03:46
the concentration of reactants and
03:48
products and we can figure out what's
03:49
going on in the reaction so if our pH
03:51
value is less than our PKA that means we
03:53
have more of this weak acid and if it's
03:56
greater than our PKA that means that we
03:58
have more of the base and so if you
04:00
think of it like this if pH goes down
04:02
we've got more of the acid and if pH
04:05
goes up then we've got more of the base
04:07
over on this side and so what are some
04:08
good applications of that well an
04:11
acid-base indicator is a great example
04:12
of that so if we're looking at Bron
04:14
thymol blue so what color is that going
04:16
to be if we're in a neutral solution
04:18
it's going to be right at 7 so our pH
04:20
and our pKa values are essentially equal
04:23
to each other
04:24
and so what happens if our ph value goes
04:26
down well that's going to shift it more
04:28
towards the left and so we're going to
04:30
have more of this form of growth imal
04:32
blue which is going to give us that
04:33
yellow color what happens if we go to
04:35
the right that's going to give us more
04:37
of this blue color in relation to that
04:39
neutral and so we can see changes in the
04:41
color of that indicator and what that's
04:43
telling us is changes in the pH this is
04:46
also important biologically remember
04:48
proteins are made up of an amino acid
04:50
and each of those amino acids are going
04:52
to have a different side chain which is
04:54
going to be if we look at every one of
04:55
these amino acids the top part is
04:58
identical but each of the side chains
05:00
that drop off the bottom is going to be
05:02
different and so each of these have a
05:04
different PKA value and so if we change
05:06
the pH of the overall protein so this is
05:09
the myoglobin for example it's going to
05:11
change the behavior of each of those
05:13
side chains in the amino acid inside it
05:16
and so did you learn that when we're
05:18
creating a good buffer solution we want
05:20
to keep our pH and PKA values equal to
05:23
each other and did you learn that
05:25
changes in the pH related to the pKa
05:27
tells us if we're moving more towards
05:29
the left more of the acid or more of the
05:31
base and then could you design a good
05:33
buffer solution remember what we've
05:35
simply got is a weak acid on the left
05:38
side and it's in its conjugate base on
05:40
the right side I hope so and I hope that
05:42
was helpful