Buffer

Description

A chemical or combination of chemicals that minimizes the change in pH of a solution when an acid or alkali is added. Buffers are usually a weak acid (or base) paired with its conjugate salt. Many natural substances, such as sea water, soil and blood contain buffers. Examples of buffer pairs are:

- acid Acetic acid / acetate sodium acetate: buffers at 4.6

- Monobasic potassium phosphate / dibasic sodium phosphate: buffers at 6.8

- chloride Ammonium chloride / hydroxide ammonium hydroxide: buffers at 9.2

- bicarbonate Sodium bicarbonate / carbonate sodium carbonate: buffers at 10.0

Synonyms and Related Terms

"Puffer (Deut.); tampon (Fr.); pH buffer; buffers

Authority

• Richard S. Lewis, Richard S. Lewis, Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 10th ed., 1993

• Richard C. Wolbers, Nanette T. Sterman, Chris Stavroudis, Richard C. Wolbers, Nanette T. Sterman, Chris Stavroudis, Notes for Workshop on New Methods in the Cleaning of Paintings, J.Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, 1990

• Bernard Toale, Bernard Toale, The Art of Papermaking, Davis Publications, Portland OR, 1983

• Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia, Douglas M. Considine (ed.), Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1976

• Random House, Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998

• Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, 2000