What masses of monobasic and dibasic sodium phosphate will you use to make 250 ml of 0.1 m sodium phosphate buffer, ph = 7?

Explanation:

The equilibrium that takes place is:

H₂PO₄⁻ ↔ HPO₄⁻² + H⁺    pka= 7.21 (we know this from literature)

To solve this problem we use the Henderson–Hasselbalch (H-H) equation:

pH = pka +

In this case [A⁻] is [HPO₄⁻²], [HA] is [H₂PO₄⁻], pH=7.0, and pka = 7.21

If we use put data in the H-H equation, and solve for [HPO₄⁻²], we're left with:

From the problem, we know that [HPO₄⁻²] + [H₂PO₄⁻] = 0.1 M

We replace the value of [HPO₄⁻²] in this equation:

0.616 * [H₂PO₄⁻] + [H₂PO₄⁻] = 0.1 M

1.616 * [H₂PO₄⁻] = 0.1 M

[H₂PO₄⁻] = 0.0619 M

With the value of [H₂PO₄⁻]  we can calculate [HPO₄⁻²]:

[HPO₄⁻²] + 0.0619 M = 0.1 M

[HPO₄⁻²] = 0.0381 M

With the concentrations, the volume and the molecular weights, we can calculate the masses: