How to Use

Buffer pH Calculator

Enter the target pH, the total concentration, and the volume, and the tool tells you how much of each reagent to take. You can mix two reagents or titrate a single one with a strong acid or base, and you pick the reagent you actually own, hydrate by hydrate. Give it the concentration of a stock solution and it switches from a mass to a volume to pipette.

The panel names at the top right open and close each panel. Drag a panel by its header to move it: panels snap to each other and to the screen edge, and a panel resting on an edge drops the rounded corner on that side. Double-click a panel title to switch between floating panels and a single fixed panel at the top right.

The calculation solves the full mass balance and charge balance of the polyprotic acid, including the self-ionization of water. It is not the Henderson–Hasselbalch approximation. Ionic strength is corrected with the Davies equation, log γ = −A z²(√I/(1+√I) − 0.3 I), and the mixed constant pKa′ = pKa + D(2z − 1) treats the pH as an activity and the buffer species as concentrations, where z is the charge of the conjugate acid. Temperature enters as pKa(T) = pKa(25 °C) + (dpKa/dT)(T − 25); A(T) comes from the Malmberg–Maryott permittivity and pKw(T) from Harned–Owen. The buffer capacity is β = C·dn̄/dpH + 2.303([H⁺] + [OH⁻]).

The pale band on the colour scale is pKa ± 1, the range where a buffer actually buffers. Outside it the capacity collapses, so pick a system whose effective pKa sits near your target pH. The list of systems that fit the pH is sorted by that distance.

The dpKa/dT values are representative literature figures and can be 10 to 20 % away from what you measure. Always check the final pH with a pH meter and adjust.