Two buffers are prepared by adding an equal number of moles of formic acid (HCOOH) and sodium formate (HCOONa) to enough water to make 1.00 L of solution. Buffer A is prepared using 1.00 mol each of formic acid and sodium formate. Buffer B is prepared by using 0.010 mol of each. (b) Which buffer will have the greater buffer capacity?

Video transcript

Hello everyone. So in this video we're trying to see if buffer X. Or buffer Y. Has a higher buffering capacity. So in our buffer we have our H. C. I. O. And R C L. O minus. And of course that C L O minus is going to be our conjugate base. So we're adding our asset to our conjugate base. And it creates this reaction which is of H 30. Plus to the conjugate base to go ahead and give us Hc I. O. As well as H 20. And if we're adding base too weak acid then we will get O. H minus plus H. C. I. O. To go ahead and create C. L. O minus and water. So they graded the absolute concentration of our weak acid and a contributor base. Then let's write that we can say that that is a case the more weak acid or contradict base which I'll just simplify to CB that can react and neutralize are added either our acid or base. And that's how we can see if it has a higher or high buffering capacity just to see which is a better buffer essentially. So because of this we can look at our reactions that we just wrote we can determine that the buffer X will have a higher buffering capacity because again the higher or greater the absolute concentration of weak acid and conjugate base, the more weak acid or contra bass, bass that can react and neutralize that acid or base that we're going to go ahead and add. So this right here is going to be my final answer for this problem. Thank you all so much for watching.