Greetings to all cultivated and elegant makers and users of CS.
In this part of the pH posting we will get into the ion thing a little
deeper (but not to deep) and also look at some of the effects of H+
ions.
The most purified water has been found to conduct electricity slighty.
So such purified water must contain a few ions. The distilled water I
use will show a reading of 001ppm (of ions). We infer that these are
derived from the water itself.
H2O + H2O <- H3O+ + OH-
neutral molecules ionized molecules
The small arrow indicates that only an extremely small fraction of
water exists in the form of pure water ions. H3O+ is called an hydronium
ion. Careful measurement of the conductivity of pure water indicate that
in ten million liters there is only one gram-ion or 19 grams of
H3O+.(This would be one gram of H+.) In other words, Hydrogen ion
CONCENTRATION of pure water or of a neutral solution of any substance in
water at room temperature (25C) is one ten-millionth (10-7)gram-ion per
liter. The exponent of 10-7 is -7; by changing the sign to plus we get
7. So pure water, or a neutral solution of any substance in water, is
said to have a hydrogen ion exponent of 7. This is the concentration of
hydrogen ions in gram-ions per liter. It is usually abbreviated pH.
The pH stands for electrical *P*otential of *H*ydrogen ions*
(Potential- Hydrogen).
The hydronium ion (H3O+) may be represented as H+ if we do not wish to
indicate the water that is always combined(hydrated) with it. For
convenience,we often use H+ as a generalized symbol to repesent any
acid, even a very weak one. The active ingredient of the alkalies is the
hydroxyl ion OH-,which is hydrated (in water) just as H+ is. So OH- is
used as a generalized symbol to represent any alkali. A neutral reaction
consists in the union of H+ ions and OH- ions to form water.
A pH higher than 7 indicates a solution that is alkaline; a pH lower
than 7 indicates a solution that is acid.
Each decrease of 1 unit in pH means that the concentration of acid
ions (concentration of hydrogen ions) in the solution INCREASES ten
times. You can visualize this in this chart:
Hydrogen ion hydrogen
concentration ion
(gram-ions) exponent
per liter or pH
10+1 10.0 -1 (acid)
10 1.0 0
10-1 0.1 1
10-2 0.01 2
10-3 0.001 3
10-4 0.0001 4
10-5 0.00001 5
10-6 0.000001 6
10-7 0.0000001 7 (neutral)
10-8 0.00000001 8
10-9 0.000000001 9
10-10 0.0000000001 10
10-11 0.00000000001 11
10-12 0.000000000001 12
10-13 0.0000000000001 13
10-14 0.00000000000001 14 (alkaline)
A good many methods of measuring pH are used, but the pH meter is the
most common. The pH meter is a sensitive volt meter with special probes
which can detect the ion potential in the water.
The pH reading is used in many industries and is very closely
controlled in the manufactuing of many products. Examples are in dye
making where exact colors are obtained at specified pH levels.
Electroplating is done at exact pH levels. Fertilizers for crops are
made to exact levels of pH for the plants the fertilizer is to be used
on. Laundry soap is made to exact levels of pH to work best with soft or
hard water.Must not forget fermenting (beer,wine,hard drink) and food
canning. All those cans on the super market shelfs are only possible
with closely controlled pH levels during processing.
In part 3 we get in to the human body and see what the pH is doing in
there.We will get a look at how silver ions attack pathogens.
Bless you all. Bob Lee
--
oozing on the muggy shore of the gulf coast
[email protected]
--
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