User:Patkndy/The Kennedy Environmental Study

The Kennedy Environmental Study The Kennedy Environmental Study was a study of the ocean water on the Northeastern U.S. seaboard. The study was focused on discovering the effects on the bicarbonate buffer system of ocean water. In general the study was intened to find the maximum pH of the ocean water after the addition of acids and bases using titration.

In general the experiment's methodology was developed on a basic understanding of the principle composition of ocean water. The pH of the ocean is regulated by a naturally occurring buffer system. This system can be defined by the chemical reaction: CO2 + H20 ↔ H2CO3 ↔ H(+) + HCO3(-) ↔ H2 + CO3(2-). The key component in this reaction is HCO3-, or bicarbonate. When an acid, for the purposes of this experiment HCl, is added to this equation, the positive H ion is absorbed by the bicarbonate, because it is negatively charged. When the H ion is accepted, the bicarbonate becomes H2CO3, and the concentration of hydrogen ions increases. When a base, such as NaOH in this lab, is added to the bicarbonate the base takes the H ion from the bicarbonate and the bicarbonate becomes CO3 (2-), and the concentration of hydrogen ions decreases. When these two reactions occur, they have an effect on the concentration of H+ ions, and the pH. This is because pH is equal to the –log[H+]. So when an acid is added to the solution the pH will drop, and when a base is added to a solution the pH rises. But, the buffer solutions purpose is to accept and donate the hydrogen ions in a special way. They do not allow the solution to fluctuate greatly in pH when acids or bases are added to it. They maintain a pH in a certain range. The purpose of this lab was to measure this capacity of the buffer of bicarbonate through a special technique called titration. Titrations are a laboratory procedure in which acids and bases are added in small integers, and the pH is recorded after each integer of acid or base is added. These results can be graphed, or in other words a graph can be made using the amount of acid or base added as the independent variable or X, and using the pH of the solution as the dependent variable, or Y. From this graph a few things can be determined. The pH range at which the buffer is effective, reflected in the graph as a semi-straight line, and the amount of fluctuation in this range, or maximums and minimums of this semi-straight line, can be determined. The ocean uses this system effectively to maintain a stable pH. The study was also conducted on various controls such as ditilled water, and synthetic ocean water.

The study's main focus was on the ocean water collected off the coast of Portsmouth, NH. The results can be considered an environmental study because the ocean acts to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, and with recent studies on climate control the subject of the lab was relevant.