ipl-logo

How Can Alka Seltzer Act As A Buffer Against Acid Rain

1463 Words6 Pages

Can Alka-Seltzer Act as a Buffer Against Acid Rain?

Background:
Acid rain is a product of rainfall being tainted by atmospheric pollution.This also means that it has high levels of hydrogen ions. When acid rain falls it has negative effects on natural environments such as aquatic life, plants, and infrastructure. The pollutants that taint rainfall is caused by the constant burning of coal and other fossil fuels, such as gas. The pollutants that are found in acid rain are sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Acidic substances can also fall from the sky in forms other than rainfall, such as snow and hail, and can also collect on the ground, as dust or fog, and can penetrate into soil.
Acid rain is extremely detrimental to soil and therefore …show more content…

Because sulfuric acid is an example of a pollutant that contaminates rainfall naturally, adding small amounts to distilled water will model acid rain. Synthetic acid rain is used to simulate the effects of acid rain on smaller and controlled scales, such as this experiment. Synthetic acid rain is overall a good tool to use a representation. A possible solution to stop acid rain from seeping into the soil and dissolving nutrients is to add a buffer to soil to counteract the effects of acid rain. Alka-Seltzer is a buffer because in order to maintain a balanced pH level, which is 7, you must have equal amounts a base an acid. Therefore, in order to balance acid rain a base would need to be added. Alka-seltzer tablets are considered a base, meaning that the two substances should cancel out and a create a normal pH level of 7. This, in turn should protect the soil from the harmful acts of acid …show more content…

Sulfuric acid was added to the distilled water, drop by drop until the solution had a pH of about 4.0.
The bottle was labeled “Acid Rain” with a sharpie.
Container 3: Alka-seltzer
650mL of water was added to the container
6 alka-seltzer tablets were dissolved into the water.
The bottle was labeled “Alka-seltzer” with a sharpie.
Container 4: Acid Rain/ Alka-seltzer
650mL of water was added to the container
Sulfuric acid was added to the water drop by drop until the solution had a pH of about 4.0
6 alka-seltzer tablet were dissolved into the solution.
The bottle was labeled “Alka-seltzer & Acid Rain” with a sharpie.
Watering
The pH of each Celosia plant was taken using the pH meter and recorded.
Each Celosia plant was sprayed with 10 sprays with the corresponding solution each day.
Before watering, each day the pH of each Celosia plant was taken with the pH meter and recorded.
After all the data was collected, the average pH for each plant was calculated and recorded.
The average pH for each plant group was calculated, using the individual plant pH and recorded.

Data:

Water: Chart 1

pH
Average ±

Show More
Related
1367 Words | 6 Pages

Weighed 1 gram of NaC2H3O2 and mixed it with ionized water. Boiled 12 mL of 1.0M Acetic Acid added into a beaker containing the sodium carbonate on a hot plate until all the liquid is evaporated

Read More
993 Words | 4 Pages

Marwah Alabbad Post lab 10/21/15 Question 1: 1. Experiment 1: Number of trails NaOH concentration (M) Volume of HCl solution (mL) Initial volume of NaOH(mL) final volume of NaOH(mL) The volume of NaOH to titrate HCl (mL) Concentration of HCl (M) 1st 0.1023 25.0 10.05 36.12 26.07 0.085 2nd 0.1023 25.0 5.74 31.40 25.66 0.105 3rd 0.1023 25.0 9.84 35.52 25.68 0.105 First trail calculation: 0.02607L× (0.1023mole NaOH/1L)×(1 mol of HCL/1 mol of NaOH)×(1/0.025)= 0.085M of HCl

Read More
79 Words | 1 Pages

Alka-Seltzer is a medical drug that works as a pain reliever and an antacid. The pain reliever used is aspirin and the antacid used is baking soda. When sodium bicarbonate dissolves in water it splits apart into sodium and bicarbonate ions. The bicarbonates reacts with hydrogen ions from citric acid to form carbon dioxide gas and water. This is how the bubbles are made.

Read More
2272 Words | 10 Pages

The effects were determined by using half of an Alka-seltzer tablet (1.41g) and dropping it in a beaker filled with 100 mL of water. We conducted this experiment five times, raising the water temperature by 10°C each time. The starting reaction rate was 0.0176 g/s, and the ending reaction rate was 0.1032 g/s. The lab was successful with an R2 value of 0.9726.

Read More
204 Words | 1 Pages

A buffer solution minimises change in PH of a solution when small amounts of acid or alkali are added to the solution, with an an acidic buffer solutions maintaining a PH<7 (ChemGuide, 2017). It works through an equilibrium, so if the concentration of H+ or OH- are changed, equilibrium will shift to oppose this change and return solution PH to original value. The Alka Seltzer mixture contains an excess amount of the bicarbonate ion which is vital for the buffering action taking place within the solution. This is because the excess bicarbonate ion present, allows the solution to act as a buffer as it’s able to react with small quantities of acids and bases added to the solution, therefore resisting a change in PH by neutralising them.

Read More
853 Words | 4 Pages

In the second portion of this experiment we will keep the temperature constant and divide the ½ tablet of Alka- Seltzer into 2 pieces ,3 pieces and an unbroken ½ tablet. It is my belief that Alka-Seltzer

Read More
1063 Words | 5 Pages

I organized four different tests; pH paper, alkalinity tests, the number of rocks neutralizing acid, and the number of rocks that don’t neutralize acid. The average for pH paper was seven. The pH is the numeric scale used to specify the acidity or alkalinity of an aqueous solution. The pH scale measures acidity and alkalinity. the pH scale goes from zero, which is an acid reading, to fourteen, which is an alkaline reading.

Read More
244 Words | 1 Pages

Alka-Seltzer tablets are used to treat headaches, stomach and body aches and also heartburn. They consist of citric acid (C6H8O7), baking soda (NaHCO3), and aspirin (C9H8O4). The fizzing observed is a result of a chemical reaction between the citric acid and baking soda which form carbon dioxide in turn causing the fizzing. When the tablets are dropped into water they dissolve and dissociate into the ions in the equation: C6H8O7 (s) → 3H+ (aq) + C6H5O7 3- (aq).

Read More
536 Words | 3 Pages

In the round-bottom flask (100 mL), we placed p-aminobenzoic acid (1.2 g) and ethanol (12 mL). We swirled the mixture until the solid dissolved completely. We used Pasteur pipet to add concentrated sulfuric acid (1.0 mL) to the flask. We added boiling stone and assembled the reflux. Then, we did reflux for 75 minutes.

Read More
1186 Words | 5 Pages

Introduction: In this task I will be researching the effect that acid rain has on the rate of plant growth. Acid rain is any type of precipitation with a high pH, with high levels of nitric acids. The reason why I had chosen this topic was because acid rain seems to have a great effect on the effect of plant growth, and plants play a very important role in our ecosystem. Acid rain is a major problem in our environment when we are not able to neutralize the acidity.

Read More
1539 Words | 7 Pages

The chemical equation for this experiment is hydrochloric acid + sodium thiosulphate + deionised water (ranging from 25ml to 0ml in 5ml intervals)  sodium chloride + deionised water (ranging from 25ml to 0ml in 5ml intervals) + sulphur dioxide + sulphur. As a scientific equation, this would be written out as, NA2S2O3 + 2HCL + H2O (ranging from 25ml to 0ml in

Read More
746 Words | 3 Pages

Some people call it acid deposition because they say it is a more precise name due to the fact that acid rain isn’t only rain, it can fall as rain, snow, sleet, hail and anything else. Acid rain has been formed because as we release harmful gases into the atmosphere, we are lowering the pH of precipitation, creating acid rain. Acid rain can kill small organisms such as trees and fish which destroys ecosystems. Although acid rain is not known to affect humans immensely, it can however, cause health issues usually lung

Read More
1012 Words | 5 Pages

Acid rain occur when sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) are emitted into the atmosphere and transported by wind and air currents. It will react with water, oxygen and other chemicals to form sulphuric and nitric acid. Small amount of SO2 and NOX that cause acid rain is from natural sources such as volcanoes and the major sources in the atmosphere are burning of fossil duels, smoke from vehicle and heavy equipment and also manufacturing, oil refineries and other industries. Primary contributor acid rain and local air quality in China is emission of SO2 from coal combustion. Coal is the main source of energy in China and a primary source of air pollution.

Read More
1270 Words | 6 Pages

As Johnson. T(1997) says; is something that happens when fossil fuels are burned, oxides of sulfur and nitrogen are emitted into the atmosphere. Once there, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides react with other chemicals to form sulfuric acid and nitric acid. These gaseous emissions can stay in the atmosphere for several days and travel hundreds or thousands of kilometers before falling back to the earth’s surface as acid rain. This process is more accurately termed acid deposition, since acidity can travel to the earth’s surface in many forms; rain, snow, fog, dew, particles(dry deposition), or aerosol gases.

Read More
1181 Words | 5 Pages

The main way humans release Sulphur into the atmosphere is via the use of fossil fuels and processing of metal. “One-third of all sulfur that reaches the atmosphere—including 90% of sulfur dioxide—stems from human activities” (The Environmental Literacy Council., 2015). Sulphur reacts with other chemicals in the atmosphere to produce small particles of sulfur salt, which comes back down to earth in the form of acid rain. The biggest effect acid rain has on the Earth is aquatic. Acid rain gets into lakes, rivers, and other bodies of waters, making them acidic (National Geographic., n.d.).

Read More

More about How Can Alka Seltzer Act As A Buffer Against Acid Rain

Related Topics

Open Document