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Magnesium Sulfate for Phosphate Buffer??
Moderators: kgudger, bfinio, MadelineB, Moderators
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pears123
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 8:51 am
- Occupation: Student- 10th Grade
- Project Question: I was looking at your "Water to Fuel to Water" Experiment in the chemistry section of your Project Ideas. I was wondering, would the experiment function if the 0.1 M phosphate buffer solution was replaced with a magnesium sulfate hepta-hydrate solution? If not, why?
- Project Due Date: December 6th, 2014
- Project Status: I am just starting
Magnesium Sulfate for Phosphate Buffer??
Hello I am doing the "Water to Fuel to Water" Experiment under your chemistry category and I was wondering if the 0.1 M Phosphate Buffer can be substituted for a magnesium-sulfate hepta-hydrate solution? If not, why? Thanks for the help!
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deleted-2131
- Former Expert
- Posts: 1415
- Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2003 11:27 pm
- Occupation: Planetary Scientist
- Project Question: N/A
- Project Due Date: N/A
- Project Status: Not applicable
Re: Magnesium Sulfate for Phosphate Buffer??
Hi pears123,
Unfortunately, no, you won't get good results if you use MgSO4-6H2O instead of the buffer described. Acid-base buffers require having conjugate weak acid-base pairs (in fairly large quantities) with appropriate acid dissociation constants to keep pH at the desired value. MgSO4-6H2O doesn't meet those requirements. Check out this webpage, which gives a very nice overview of how acid-base buffers work: http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Physical_Ch ... es/Buffers. If you've had a chemistry class in high school, you should be able to follow what the webpage describes.
Unfortunately, no, you won't get good results if you use MgSO4-6H2O instead of the buffer described. Acid-base buffers require having conjugate weak acid-base pairs (in fairly large quantities) with appropriate acid dissociation constants to keep pH at the desired value. MgSO4-6H2O doesn't meet those requirements. Check out this webpage, which gives a very nice overview of how acid-base buffers work: http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Physical_Ch ... es/Buffers. If you've had a chemistry class in high school, you should be able to follow what the webpage describes.
All the best,
Terik
Terik