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Topic: calculating the pH of a diprotic acid (chromic acid)  (Read 6151 times)

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Offline sciencegirl

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calculating the pH of a diprotic acid (chromic acid)
« on: November 15, 2010, 09:33:17 AM »
Hello,

I'm stuck with the following problem:
Chromic acid is a diprotic acid with Ka values of 1.6 and 3.1e-7. Calculate
the pH of a 100 mL of 0.100 M chromic acid before and after addition of 10.0 mL of 0.100
M KOH.

What I've got so far is:

H2CrO4 <--> H2 + HCrO42-

and

HCrO4 <--> H+ + CrO4-

I'm not sure where to go from here.

Offline AWK

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Re: calculating the pH of a diprotic acid (chromic acid)
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2010, 09:43:12 AM »
As the first approximation (and quite good one) use only the first dissociation constant K1 (neglect completely K2) and quadratic equation.
AWK

Offline sciencegirl

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Re: calculating the pH of a diprotic acid (chromic acid)
« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2010, 09:52:11 AM »
great...but how does the pH change with the addition of KOH?

Offline rabolisk

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Re: calculating the pH of a diprotic acid (chromic acid)
« Reply #3 on: November 16, 2010, 12:36:42 AM »
KOH is a strong base. Acid and base will react.

Offline JustinCh3m

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Re: calculating the pH of a diprotic acid (chromic acid)
« Reply #4 on: November 16, 2010, 01:46:29 AM »
calculate total moles of OH- prior to it's addition to the acid H2CrO4.  Then realize that, as it's a strong base, OH- will "rip" or deprotonate that same # moles of H+ from the H2CrO4.

Yes, just worry about the first deprotonation (K1 equilibrium only).  After taking into account the deprotonation, work with this equation using the ICE method:

H2CrO4 <-->  H+  +  CrO4-

Offline sciencegirl

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Re: calculating the pH of a diprotic acid (chromic acid)
« Reply #5 on: November 16, 2010, 02:04:01 AM »
Great!  That helped a lot...that's what I did but wasn't sure until now.

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