[zhang85]

I working on a copper remediation lab in an engineering class that requires us to develop an onsite treatment for water flowing out of a copper drainage pipe. We're able to measure the pH of the effluent, but my chemistry is rusty and I need to be able to find the concentration of the copper since 90 percent removal has to be achieved. So my question then is, given the pH, how do you find the concentration of copper in the effluent water?

I'm not entirely sure this is correct, but I believe the formula is Cu(s) + H2O --> CuO(aq) + 2H ? If I didn't want to calculate the concentration directly because I have so many data points, would it be at all accurate to develop a calibration curve for known pH values and concentrations of Copper and then fit the measured pH values to the best fit line? Thanks very much for your help.