Which antacid tablet is the most effective in neutralising acid in the stomach?
What are Antacids?
Definition
Antacid tablets are medicines that relieve indigestion and heartburn by neutralising the acid in your stomach.
Why are they used?
Your body produces stomach acid, which is mainly made up of hydrochloric acid, to help with the digestion of food and kill germs. Due to the stomach acid being corrosive, your body produces a mucous barrier to line the stomach and stop it from being damaged.
Sometimes, the barrier may have been broken so the stomach acid starts to eat away at the stomach, causing an ulcer. Other problems may be where the muscle that keeps the stomach tightly closed is not doing its job. Stomach acid might escape and irritate the gullet. This results in acid reflux and ultimately, causes heartburn and inflammation.
What is stomach acid?
Defenition
Stomach acid, also known as gastric acid, is a highly acidic liquid your body naturally produced to help with the digestion and absorption of nutrients in food.
What is it made up of?
Stomach acid's extremely low PH level is due to hydrochloric acid (HCl) but there is only a small amount of hydrochloric acid in stomach acid. Other components include potassium chloride (KCl) and sodium chloride (NaCl). Typically, stomach acid is around a pH of 1 to 2 making it very acidic.
What do they do?
The antacid tablets neutralise the stomach acid which can help relieve the pain of ulcers and the burning sensation caused by acid reflux.
What are the chemical compositions?
Most antacids contain two or more components. The most common combinations are varying concentrations of sodium hydroxide and aluminium hydroxide. All these have different effects, target different areas and suit a wide range of different people.
There are a multitude of antacid components including and usually antacids contain at least one of these key ingredients: Sodium Bicarbonate [NaHCO3], Magnesium Hydroxide [Mg(OH)2], Aluminum Hydroxide [Al(OH)3], Calcium Carbonate [CaCO3]
Different types of antacids There are two different ways that antacids can be delivered these are through liquids and chewable tablets. There is also a wide range of different antacids and they vary depending on the neutralisation strength and other factors.
What is neutralisation?
Nuetralisation is the chemical reaction between acids and bases and uses the combination of H+ ions and OH- ions to generate water.
How do they work?
Antacids work by counteracting (neutralising) the acid in your stomach. This happens because the chemicals are bases which are opposites of acids. This neutralisation makes the stomach contents less corrosive and helps to relieve the pain associated with ulcers and the burning sensation in acid reflux.
Examples of neutralisation There are many different examples of neutralisation and they can be found everywhere in the daily world. Some examples of neutralisation are when HCl (Hydrochloric acid), a strong acid, reacts with NaOH, a strong base, the resulting salt is sodium chloride and water.
Factors that affect antacid tables
Testing the solubility
Independent Variable - The element
Dependent Variable - Time taken for element to dissolve in warm water
Risks - Burning yourself with the bunsen burner, coming into contact with toxic chemicals, coming into contact with the hot water.
Limitations - Not being able to keep the water at a constant temperature, not having access to certain elements and compounds, not being able to accurately measure time taken to dissolve
Procedure - Heat distilled water with a Bunsen burner until 40 degrees C and put 5 rice grain of element/compound into the water and stir. Start timer and keep stirring until element/compound completely dissolves. Record time taken for element/compound to completely dissolve.
Testing the pH level
Independent Variable - The element/compound
Dependent Variable - The pH level of the element/compound
Risks - Getting the universal indicator into your eyes, coming into contact with harmful elements/compounds, spilling the universal indicator.
Limitations - Not having access to the universal indicator, not being able to tell which colour and pH level the element/compound is, not having access to a clean white piece of tile
Procedure -Put a few rice grains of the element/compound on a clean white piece of tile. Squeeze out a few drops of the universal indicator on the element/compound and compare what colour it turns.
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