[billnotgatez]

I was discussing items you might have in the home lab that would be good Acid/Base neutralizers.
The first things that came mind was baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) [or washing soda (sodium carbonate)] solution and vinegar (acetic acid) solution.
But, someone brought up that you might want something that was more buffer like.
Maybe borax (20 Mule Team)
 http://web.archive.org/web/20001019042905/http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/2000/feb/bio/default.asp
I searched around and found the below link to a table of buffers, but most of them did not seem to be home chemicals
 http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Biochem/Biochem_353/Common_Buffers.html

I will keep GOOGLEing and try to read Chem Buddy to get more ideas.
 http://www.chembuddy.com/

My best recollection is that we always used some sort of phosphate buffer as a buffer, but my brain cells are having a hard time coming up what we used for a neutralizer.

If anyone else wants to give their 2 cents please do so.

Regards,
Bill (not the guy with all the money)

[Borek]

NaOH from a drain cleaner?

[408]

HCl -muriatic acid
H2SO4-drain cleaner
HNO3- pH down for ponds
NaHSO4-pH down for pools and hot tubs
citric acid- no idea what for, but available at pharmacies
boric acid-same as citric
NaOH-drain opener, lye
KOH-pH up for ponds
trisodium phosphate-available as a a cleaner
sodium carbonate-pH up

[Borek]

KOH-pH down for ponds
sodium carbonate-pH down

Wow.

[408]

hehe oops

[billnotgatez]

@408
I like your list as neutralizers
 
But

These I would delete from my list if I were to use to wash off my hands due to spillage of a reagent
additionally they are not buffers
HCl
H2SO4
HNO3
NaOH
KOH

That leaves from your list

NaHSO4
citric acid
boric acid
trisodium phosphate
sodium carbonate

of which the following might be a buffer

trisodium phosphate

I will read more

by the way I think
citric acid used for cosmetics maybe (pharmacy)
boric acid use in eye washing long ago very dilute  (pharmacy)

Thanks Bill

[billnotgatez]

After looking at WIKI
trisodium phosphate
did not look so good and the MSDS scared me
but diluted it might be OK

But

From WIKI they had this list
Sodium triphosphate, a water softener used in dishwashing detergent and a food preservative.
Sodium dihydrogen phosphate, commonly termed monosodium phosphate, (NaH2PO4), is a laxative a pH buffer
Disodium hydrogen phosphate, commonly termed disodium phosphate, (Na2HPO4), is a laxative and anti-caking agent used in food.
Sodium aluminium phosphate, (Na8Al2(OH)2(PO4)4) is a pH buffer and an emulsifying agent used in food.[10]

Thus the following seems to be good candidates
Sodium dihydrogen phosphate
Disodium hydrogen phosphate
Sodium aluminium phosphate

Also WIKI says
citric acid can possibly be used as a buffer

[billnotgatez]

What I am thinking is a good neutralizer would be something that could be used on acid or base and is not to caustic.

Thoughts

As a side note - I found this on WIKI also
Buffering

As a weak acid, citrate can be used as a component in buffer solutions, including the commonly used SSC 20X hybridization buffer. This buffer uses sodium citrate and sodium chloride to maintain a neutral 7.0 pH. Other buffers may use a mixture of sodium citrate and citric acid – canonical buffer tables compiled for biochemical studies describe solutions of citrate and acid for buffer pHs of between 3.0 and 6.2

[billnotgatez]

I just read a short thing on WIKI

In biochemistry and molecular biology, the saline-sodium citrate (SSC) buffer is used as a hybridization buffer, to control stringency for washing steps in protocols for Southern blotting, in situ hybridization, DNA Microarray or Northern blotting. 20X SSC may be used to prevent drying of agarose gels during a vacuum transfer.
A 20X stock solution consists of 3 M sodium chloride and 300 mM trisodium citrate (adjusted to pH 7.0 with HCl).