Question

How can you increase the buffering capacity of a 0.1 M acetic acid/sodium acetate buffer? Explain your answer!

Answer 1

You can always increase the buffering capacity of an Acetic acid + Sodium acetate by:

- Add equal amounts of acetic acid : sodium acetate

- You want to increase the concentration of acetate ions + acetic acid, so add mmol directly to increase it (keep ratio)

- NEVER add more water, since this makes it much more dilute

- If possible, distillate water so Total volume of solution decreases, this will increase concentration of all species which increase the buffering conditions