Wait, HELP. Conceptualizing Acids/Bases...

[johnwandering]

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Wait, For some reason I cannot conceptualize this anymore.

Decreasing pH mean that there is an exponential increase in Hydronium concentration
And pKa is the pH in which the acid is deprotonated, thus contributing to the [H+] increase...


However, what's going on with weak acids?
For instance, the pH of a 0.15M phenol (pKa=10.0) solution is just below 6

How can this be? Phenol is deprotonated at pH 10.0
But there is a considerable [H+] dissociated anyways when Phenol is added??

I don't understand why the pH is not just 7...



Can anyone perhaps paint a picture concerning weak acids and bases??

 

[UCB05]

pKa is the pH at which about half of an acid is protonated/deprotonated. At pH = pKa = 10, half of all phenols are deprotonated. At lower pH, less will be deprotonated. At higher pH, more will be deprotonated.

When you put the phenol into a pH neutral solution to .15M, not all of it will deprotonate (not even half will), but enough H+ will be liberated to bump the pH down to around 6

 

[Phantastic]

nvm beat me to it