Ahh, so HCO3- acts as a base. Would this be because it is the strong conjugate base of the weak acid H2CO3?
Another question i have is justify the use of AAS in the mining industry, and in safeguarding the environment.
Just curious as to what points i should bring up for 'mining industry'.
Cheers.
Hey MysteryMarker!
To your enquiry about the conjugate base/acid pair, yes and no. HCO
3- is a strong base since H
2CO
3. However, it is only strong compared to water, meaning that when reacting with water, it is able to accept a hydrogen proton from water. But compared to NaOH which is a very strong base, HCO3- is less strong as a base. In our blood stream, HCO3- and H
2CO
3 act as buffer pairs and if HCO3- is a strong base then it wouldnt have the buffer effect since strong bases result in irreversible reactions. So when you talk about HCO3-, say its a strong base RELATIVE TO WATER.
In regards to AAS, I will just jot down a few dotpoints here for you to consider:
- Before AAS there was no way to detect the existence of trace elements in waterways (trace elements = extremely small quantities)
- AAS has helped industries to monitor heavy metal pollution into nearby waterways or atmosphere
- For example, if you do industrial chemistry, you can talk about the mercury cell which leeches the neurotoxin mercury into waterways and this can bioaccumulate and affect the health of animals going up the food chain
- If we wanna talk about mining industry, we can say that AAS helps to detect lead or mercury vapours that may rise from underground deposit caverns and these can really threaten workers' health
- And almost if you want to see the purity of the metal ore that is dug up from the ground, AAS would be useful for detecting small amounts of impurities
I think its quite hard to talk about the use of AAS in mining industry without being a mining engineer but generally AAS would just be used for detecting heavy metal existences and purity of materials. In HSC, they would ask for applications of AAS, but very unlikely to ask about its relation with mining industry. More likely they would be asking about AAS' use in water quality examination or just its general uses.
Best Regards
Happy Physics Land