Friday 16 September 2016

How to Find pOH

The pH and pOH of a neutral solution at 25oC are equal to 7. The ion concentrations are small and the negative exponents make them tedious to work. Soren Peer Lauritz Sorenson, a Danish biochemist devised the pH concept in 1909 to express hydrogen ion concentration. The pOH of a solution can be defined as

pOH = - log[OH^-]

The [H+] and [OH-] are inversely related and consequentially pH and pOH are inversely related. We can picture pH and pOH as sitting on opposite sides of a seesaw as one goes up the other always goes down. The product of the hydrogen and hydroxide concentrations will be equal to 1.0 x 10-14, while the sum of the pH and pOH will be equal to 14.

The relationship between the type of solution, pOH and ion concentration is shown in the table below.


The pH and pOH scales are based on logarithms, a change in 1 pH or pOH unit represents a change in ion concentration of a factor of ten. For example, coffee with a pH of 5 has approximately 100 times the hydronium ion concentration as tap water with a pH of 7.

The concept of alkalinity is much less commonly used; it is defined as the logarithm of the reciprocal of the concentration of hydroxyl in a solution. The following are the formulas used to determine the pOH.

pOH = 14 – pH
pOH = - log [OH^-]

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