I understand that a buffer must include a wk acid and its conj. base or salt of its conj. base. However for this question:
Can you identify a buffer when you see one?
a. 50 ml of .25M NH4Cl + 50 ml of .25 M NH3
b. 50 ml of .25 M NH4Cl + 25 ml of .25 M NaOH
c. 25 ml of .25 M HCl + 50 ml of .25 M NH3
d. all the above form a buffer solution.
The answer is D. Isn't HCl a strong acid? It turns out you have to have NH4Cl + NaOH => NH3 + H2O + NaCl, that doesn't make much sense to me, why would you add those together? also shouldn't NaCl be dissociating to Na and Cl ions? Also NH3 + HCl => NH4Cl again I don't understand how you come up with it. All I understand is that NH3 is a base, NH4Cl is an acid. Please help if you can, this is really driving me crazy.