LIFE 102 Lecture Notes - Enantiomer, Acid Rain, Hydroxy Group
Document Summary
Concentrations of h+ and oh- are equal in pure water. Adding certain solutes, called acids and bases, modifies the concentrations of h+ and. Biologists use something called the ph scale to describe whether a solution is acidic or basic (the opposite of acidic) An acid is any substance that increases the h+ concentration of a solution. A base is any substance that reduces the h+ concentration of a solution. In any aqueous solution at 25 c the product of h+ and oh- is constant and can be written as. The ph of a solution is defined by the negative logarithm of h+ concentration, written as ph = -log [h+] Acidic solutions have ph values less than 7. Basic solutions have ph values greater than 7. Most biological fluids have ph values in the range of 6 to 8. The internal ph of most living cells must remain close to ph 7.