How could you determine the acidity of household items
What is acidity
What are household items
Food
Medicine
Cleaning Products
Personal Hygiene
Make up
Electronics
"Household goods are goods and products used within households. They are the tangible and movable personal property placed in the rooms of a house, such as a bed or refrigerator"
Skin Cleansers
Malic Acid
Oven Cleaner
Glycolic Acid
Lemons
Citric Acid
Antiseptic
Acetic Acid
Soap
Lactic Acid
Citric Acid
Acetic Acid
Batteries
Sulfuric Acid
Acidity: "the level of acid in substances such as water, soil, or wine."
Gardening
Soil
Nitric Acid
PH: "a figure expressing the acidity or alkalinity of a solution on a logarithmic scale on which 7 is neutral, lower values are more acid and higher values more alkaline. The pH is equal to −log10 c, where c is the hydrogen ion concentration in moles per litre. PH stands for potential of hydrogen"
Acid: "a substance with particular chemical properties including turning litmus red, neutralizing alkalis, and dissolving some metals; typically, a corrosive or sour-tasting liquid of this kind."
Factors
Type of Household Item
Type of Acid
Different Tests
Paper Chromatography
Enzymatic Assay
Thin Layer Chromatography
High Performance Liquid Chromatography
Risks
Some household items such as cleaning chemicals can be hazardous if they come in contact with eyes
Some household items such as oven cleaner can be hazardous to the touch
Substances which are either very acidic or very basic are corrosive as they easily react with other materials making them a hazard when in contact with the body
State of Household Item
PH test
Paper Chromatography, Thin Layer Chromatography, High Performance Liquid Chromatography and PH testing using an indicator are different tests used to determine whether or not an acid is present in a household item. These tests can be done in tandem with a carefully monitored neutralization reaction to determine the acidity of the item
Acidity is the concentration of H+ ions in a solution with the PH scale used to represent the acidity of a solution. The PH scale is logarithmic meaning that as the PH value increases by one, the concentration of hydrogen ions decreases by 10 times. For example, a substance of PH 3 would have a 10 times lower concentration of hydrogen ions than a substance with a PH 2
Limitations
An enzymatic assay is an experiment in which a specific enzyme used to absorb the acid is carefully monitored as it is added to the acidic solution.
While the accuracy on the volumetric equipment is designed to be higher, it is still not fully accurate with a +-0.05ml inaccuracy for all measurements
Determining the PH using universal indicator can be inacurrate
As a lot of household items don't dissolve in water, they would not have valid PH values
Temperature of Household Item
Carbonation
Household Items are a variety of goods or products that can be found within the average household. A larger number of these goods contain acids than we realize
As acids and bases may be highly reactive, some household objects may be hazardous to touch such as cleaning chemicals like bleach. Additionally, a number of household objects are liquids such as drinks like water and juice. To prevent these hazards, a number of precautions can be taken such as wearing appropriate PPE such as an apron, safety goggles and gloves, and keeping glassware and beakers containing liquids away from edges
Household objects which are liquids may be spilt which could cause slippage hazards or could be dangerous if they are spilt near electrical equipment
Any glassware involved may be shattered if it is dropped or handled violently.
Method Used
There are a number of factors which impact the acidity of household items. These vary from the object itself and its properties such as its carbonation and state to the type of acid use and how it could be measured to external factors such as the temperature.
A number of limitations need to be considered when determining the acidity of household items to get a better understanding of the results and their interpretations