Acid rain (buffers)

Hello everyone!

Acid rain is a solution that forms when sulfur dioxide reacts with water in the air to form "Sulfuric Acid." This process is very common in the United States; to such a degree that many rivers and lakes were devastated by plant and animal life, although there were some exceptions; for example in the river "Clark Fork" where the damage from acid rain is less or imperceptible compared to other places, this because this river is "protected" by limestone, which provides calcium carbonate that acts as a natural buffer that prevents changes in pH.

A buffer solution is a mixture of a weak acid and its conjugate base or a weak base plus its conjugated acid, which is known as acid-base pairs. The weak point helps make them good buffers because they do not dissociate completely in water and acts as a source of protons. For example, when a weak acid is added to water, it dissociates into its constituent ions, so when the acid releases hydrogen ions these will bind with the constituent ions, then the pH is not affected But like everything, the shock absorbers are not indestructible, if we add a lot of acid or base, the shock absorber simply will not resist, because the constituent Ions will be less than those of Hydrogen, surpassing its buffering capacity that tells us the amount of acid or base that you can add before a major change.