The fluids within cells are buffered by H2PO4- and HPO42 - .
b. ...

Question

The fluids within cells are buffered by H2PO4- and HPO42 - . 
b. Could a buffer system employing H3PO4 as the weak acid 
and H2PO4- as the weak base be used as a buffer system 
within cells? Explain.

Accepted Answer

Hello. Everyone in this video. We're going to try to see if this and this can make a buffer. So let's first recall that a buffer solution can be made with the following. So we have the choice of a week. So just put W base and the conjugate acid can also be with a weak acid with this conjugate base. Third option is have a weak acid and a strong base. Another thing to keep in mind for this combination is that the concentration acid has to be greater than the concentration of our base because if we have a strong base and that concentration is higher, that kind of overpowers this weak acid. Alright. The last option it's going to be where we have a weak base and a strong acid. And also another thing to keep in mind is that because we have a strong acid, we want the concentration of our base to be greater than the concentration of our acid? All right, So let's take a look at what we have here. Were given the region H2 S four is actually a really known a well known strong acid And then we have our h. s. four, The -1 Church. And it's going to be its conjugate base knows that in this compound here we're just losing one of the hydrogen to the protons. And that's why we have a negative one charge and therefore we have the contra bass. So since we have a strong asset and a conjugate base. Do you see anything here that reminds you of this? There's nuts. And because there's no combination of this with a strong acid and conjugate base, you can answer the question with no, and the reason being it's not a buffer combination, and this is going to be my final answer for this problem. Thank you all so much for watching.

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