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Topic: Solubility of CO2 increases with increasing pH  (Read 7429 times)

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Offline urtula

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Solubility of CO2 increases with increasing pH
« on: June 16, 2023, 03:32:12 PM »
Hello all,

I am aware that adding CO2 to water will decrease the pH and the CO2 + H2O <--> H+ + HCO3- <--> 2H+ + CO32-equilibrium.
However, I do not understand why CO2 would have a higher solubility at higher pH.
Would it be too simply to state this is due to Henry's law? If the pH of the water is high, limited amounts of CO2 are in the water and if I then inject air rich in CO2 in the water, a higher solubility of CO2 in the water will be reached because of a lot more CO2 is present in the air, shifting the equilibrium more towards dissolving (higher solubility) CO2 in the water?







Offline Hunter2

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Re: Solubility of CO2 increases with increasing pH
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2023, 10:57:31 AM »
Higher pH means solution is more alcaline. CO2 is in water an acid, which neutralize the higher pH to lower one, what means more CO2 will be dissolved and forming Carbonate.

Offline urtula

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Re: Solubility of CO2 increases with increasing pH
« Reply #2 on: June 18, 2023, 11:11:54 AM »
Higher pH means solution is more alcaline. CO2 is in water an acid, which neutralize the higher pH to lower one, what means more CO2 will be dissolved and forming Carbonate.
Yeah, that I understand, but is that the same as having a higher solubility?
I get that at a higher pH more CO2 will be able to dissolve in the water (and thus reduce the pH and ultimately increase the concentration of cO2 in the water), however is this the same as having a higher solubility at higher pH?
If this is the case, is it then because the higher the pH, the less CO2 is present so the concentration of CO2 in the water is lower (at high pH) than at low pH (high CO2 concentration) ?

Perhaps I am just struggling with the wording (I am not a native speaker).

Offline Hunter2

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Re: Solubility of CO2 increases with increasing pH
« Reply #3 on: June 18, 2023, 11:43:22 AM »
The soloubility is higher at higher pH, because of chemical reaction. Not Opposit.

Offline Borek

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Re: Solubility of CO2 increases with increasing pH
« Reply #4 on: June 18, 2023, 12:16:31 PM »
Yeah, that I understand, but is that the same as having a higher solubility?

Define "solubility" and we will start from there.
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Offline urtula

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Re: Solubility of CO2 increases with increasing pH
« Reply #5 on: June 18, 2023, 04:28:52 PM »
Define "solubility" and we will start from there.
I was thinking about how good a substance will dissolve ( at what rate, so higher solubility means a faster rate of dissolving).
So I am thinking about how a substance (eg salt) will dissolve better (faster) in water without any salt in it yet (lower concentration of salt in water, thus better dissolving of the salt you put it) or when the temperature is higher, it will dissolve beter.
So here: for the pH, I am not sure how this works. I figured it was because at higher pH there is less CO2 (like the salt example I gave) so CO2 can dissolve more compared to at lower pH?




The soloubility is higher at higher pH, because of chemical reaction. Not Opposit.
I am still having a hard time grasping why the higher pH would cause a higher solubility. The higher pH would increase (promote) the chemical reaction?

Offline Hunter2

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Re: Solubility of CO2 increases with increasing pH
« Reply #6 on: June 18, 2023, 04:40:44 PM »
The dissolving of a salt  like NaCl is a physical process. The dissolving and its behaviour is more or less described what you wrote. The pH is almost neutral.
The dissolving of  a gas CO2 is also in one  part a physical process but it also  reacts with water chemically to carbonic acid.  The pH will decrease. If the pH of the water is already high then this acid will neutralized and more CO2 can be dissolved in comparison to water with neutral or even lower pH.

Offline Borek

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Re: Solubility of CO2 increases with increasing pH
« Reply #7 on: June 18, 2023, 05:13:56 PM »
I was thinking about how good a substance will dissolve ( at what rate, so higher solubility means a faster rate of dissolving).

Dissolving rate depends mostly on mass transport (mixing/diffusion/convection), properties of the solvent and solute are much less important and in many cases completely negligible.
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Offline urtula

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Re: Solubility of CO2 increases with increasing pH
« Reply #8 on: July 07, 2023, 02:07:51 PM »
I was thinking about how good a substance will dissolve ( at what rate, so higher solubility means a faster rate of dissolving).

Dissolving rate depends mostly on mass transport (mixing/diffusion/convection), properties of the solvent and solute are much less important and in many cases completely negligible.
I am confused now, so you are telling me now that the pH does not really influence the dissolving of the CO2?

Offline Borek

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Re: Solubility of CO2 increases with increasing pH
« Reply #9 on: July 07, 2023, 04:59:18 PM »
No. I feel like you are confusing solubility (which is about equilibrium) with kinetics (which is about how fast we get to the equilibrium). Solubility is a function of pH. time required to saturate the solution depends more on other factors than on pH.
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