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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 1997  > August  >
Research: Science and Education
Buffer Index and Buffer Capacity for a Simple Buffer Solution
Veronica Chiriac, Gabriel Balea
Department of Pharmacy, University of Medicine & Pharmacy, Timisoara, RO-1900, Romania

Cover
August 1997
Vol. 74 No. 8
p. 937

Abstract
Many papers that present the buffering effect of the simple buffer solution consider the notion of buffer index and buffer capacity as being equivalent. Moreover, IUPAC defies them as the same thing. According to the definition of the authors who have introduced these two units, the paper shows that there is a large difference between them. The buffer index can be defined as the differential ratio of the increase in the amount of strong acid or strong base added, to pH variation. The buffer capacity is numerically expressed to be equal with the minimum concentration of strong acid or strong base which causes the variation of buffer's pH with one unit. The field of application of both notions is different: the buffer capacity is used in the quantitative chemical analysis and the buffer index in studying biological systems.

See Letter re: this article.

More Information
*  Citation
Chiriac, Veronica ; Balea, Gabriel. J. Chem. Educ. 1997 74 937.
*  Keywords
Analytical Chemistry, Demonstrations, Theoretical Chemistry, Acid-Base Chemistry
*  History
Created:
Last Updated:
July 28, 1999
June 23, 2005
Link to Letter added (April 2004).
  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 1997 > August > Page 937



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