![]() ![]() PKa is the measurement of acidity or basicity of a chemical or functional group. Now that we have an answer to “what is pH?” let’s move on to pKa. So, the pH scale ranks the acidity of a solution. The relationship between pH and proton concentration. Here’s a handy table so you can see how these two equations relate to one another. Given the above definition of pH, the fact that a proton is simply a hydrogen atom that has lost its only electron (H +), and using the square bracket notation, we can express the answer to “what is pH?” mathematically:Īnd, using the wee bit of algebra presented in the previous section: In chemistry, the concentration of any species is denoted by writing it in square brackets.įor example, means “the concentration of X.” ![]() So, mathematically, pH is the negative log to base 10 of the proton concentration. The acidity or basicity of any solution is defined by its concentration of protons. PH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of a solution. But I can’t answer “what is pH?” etc., without explaining logarithms. So the negative sign is just a fiddle factor that makes the pH scale a positive one. If the negative sign wasn’t applied to the log function, a solution with a molar concentration of 10 -7 protons would have a pH of -7. So, at the risk of jumping ahead, a solution with a molar concentration of 10 -7 protons has a pH of 7. So Log 101000 = 3 and so on.Īs such, the logarithm function is the inverse function to exponentiation.īy convention, “log” is taken to mean “log to base 10.”Īnd remember, the “p” denotes a negative logarithm. The number 10 needs to be multiplied by itself 3 times to equal 1000. This is achieved by representing all the numbers in question by the number of times a factor needs to be multiplied by itself to equal the original value.Į.g., 10 is a factor of 1000. Logarithms make it easier to read and manipulate numbers, the range of which spans several orders of magnitude. Logarithms transform a nonlinear series of values into a linear series.Į.g., the logarithm (to base 10) of, 10, 100, 1000, and 10,000 is 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively.Ī quick math rule to jot down in your notebook. The “p” in pH, pKa, and pI denotes the negative logarithm, to base 10, of the parameter in question. Stick around, be anonymous, and learn the answers to “what is pH?” “what is pKa?” and “what is pI” without ignominy. Need to quickly re-learn what these parameters are so that you can confidently train an inductee? Been handed an urgent lab task that requires you to fully understand these numbers to do a thorough job of it? (Imagine if we had to ask somebody the questions we Googled!)Īnd here at Bitesize Bio, we don’t judge. ![]() These numbers fall into that category: “things I learned eons ago, and now I’m too embarrassed to ask what they are.”įortunately, reading an article on the internet is discreet. But what is pH? How does it relate to pKa and pI? We all rely on pH, pKa, and pI for a vast amount of our research. ![]()
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