this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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I know this is a meme, but in case someone is interested, we usually do not want to use strong acids/bases to maintain buffers, instead, weaker acids (for eg, acetic acid), weaker bases (nh4oh), or their correponding weak-strong salt pair, or if it is really close to 7, then weak-weak, weakly dissociating salts (likr (nh4)2 co3).
I am probably forgetting the proper names for this, but idea is that waker acids/bases do not dissociate completely. for example, iirc, nh4oh is something close to 9-10, so if you want a basic buffer, then you use nh4oh in bulk to get close to required absolute amount of oh- ion concentration (maybe, because you want some reaction to happen in proper stoichiometric ratios), and for fine tuning, use very low concentration of stronger acid/base (depending on the fact that your target is above or below the value of bulk). stronger acids/bases almost immediately completely ionise. for example, i want to make something like 8.5, then i start with nh40h with 9, and slowly add hcl to reduce ph. with this, you make nh40h + hcl -> nh4cl + h2o. this nh4cl, is now acting as weakely dissociating. this reaction is also reversible. around the equillibrium ph, if you add more h+, then reaction goes forward. but simply by adding more water (or diluting), you can reverse this. with salt like nacl(nacl + h2o -> na+ + cl-) , they will practically never recombine, and you can not use this to your advantage.
the actual salt/acid/base to be used will also depend on solubility of present ions, miscibility, organic or non organic (in this context, organic means carbon related molecules)