Review of organic and

inorganic chemistry,
pH
and Buffers
Gilbert D. Bernardino Jr
 What would life
be without
chemistry?
“Without chemistry life would be
nasty, brutish, and short. With
chemistry, it can be comfortable,
entertaining, and well fed. Transport
can be efficient; clothes alluring. Lives
can be longer.” (Atkins, 2015 p.xv)
 “Greed. Greed inspired humanity to
embark on an extraordinary journey that
touches everyone today. The particular
variety of greed I have in mind was
jointly the quest for immortality and the
attainment of unbounded riches.”
(Atkins, 2015 p.1)
Atoms
 Molecules
 the number of neutrons does not affect the atomic
number

 for an atom to be electrically neutral the number of

electrons outside the nucleus must be the same as
the number of protons inside the nucleus.

 chemical reactions do not change the identities of

elements.
Isotopes
 An isotope is a different kind of
atom of the same element where
the number of neutrons in the
nucleus varies.
 “The key idea in chemistry is that when
one substance changes into another, the
atoms themselves do not change: they
simply exchange partners or enter into
new arrangements. Chemistry is all about
divorce and remarriage.” (Atkins, 2015
p.3)
 “there are, of course, speckles and blotches of
black amid all this light. Chemistry has
certainly contributed to mankind’s ability to
maim and kill, and it would be inappropriate
in this survey of what chemistry is to sweep
under the carpet of its pages its provision of
explosives, of nerve gases, and its accidental
and intentional impositions on our fragile
environment.” (Atkins, 2015 p.6)
Divisions of
chemistry

Physical
 Organic
 Inorganic
Physical
chemistry
 “Physical chemistry lies at the interface of
physics and chemistry (hence its name)
and deals with the principles of chemistry
which, as we have seen, consist largely of
quantum mechanics for explaining the
structures of atoms and molecules and
thermodynamics for assessing the role and
deployment of energy.” (Atkins, 2015 p.7)
Organic
chemistry

“Organic chemistry is the part of

chemistry that is concerned with
the compounds of carbon.”
(Atkins, 2015 p.8)
 “As a result of its mild and unaggressive
character, it is able to form chains and
rings of startling complexity. Startling
complexity is exactly what organisms
need if they are to be regarded as being
alive, and thus the compounds of carbon
are the structural and reactive
infrastructure of life.” (Atkins, 2015 p.8)

 “That leaves the rest of the
elements, the hundred or so
elements other than carbon. Their
study is the domain of inorganic
chemistry.” (Atkins, 2015 p.9)
Acids
 Latin acidus: sour, sharp
 Thomas Lowry (1874–1936) and the Danish
chemist Johannes Brønsted (1879–1947)
independently proposed that an acid is any
molecule or ion that contains hydrogen
atoms that can release their proton
nucleus to another molecule or ion.
 An acid donates a proton
Bases

 Arabic
al qaliy, the ashes, for
wood ash is a source of alkali

A base accepts a proton

Salts

 thegeneral class of ionic substances

formed by the reaction of an acid
and a base
 Themineral salts are calcium (Ca+),
phosphate (PO4-), chloride (Cl-),
sodium (Na+), and potassium (K+).
pH

 pH is defined as the negative

logarithm of the hydrogen
ion concentration in a
solution
 pH= -log [H+]
pOH

 thenegative of the logarithm of

the OH- ion concentration.

 pOH = - log [OH-]

pH+pOH=14
Devlin (2011)
Computing for the pH

 Findthe pH if the H+ concentration

is 0.0001 moles per liter.

pH = -log[H+]
pH = - log (0.0001) = 4
Buffers
 Buffers are special substances that act as
reservoirs for hydrogen ions, donating them
to a solution when their concentration falls
and taking them from a solution when
their concentration rises. Buffers help
maintain homeostasis within cells in regard
to pH levels, keeping them fairly close to
7.

 the key buffer in human blood is the acid-

base pair bicarbonate (a base) and carbonic
acid (an acid).
 “A buffer is an aqueous
solution that resists
changes in pH upon the
addition of an acid or
a base”.
Henderson-Hasselbalch equation