acetate buffer working mechanisms

Mechanism of action of acetate buffer

Acetate buffer calculator

This is the best acetate buffer calculator available online. I’m sure you will find it very much useful. An acetate buffer has many uses, for example, it is can be used in the nucleic acid precipitation and protein crystallization. Furthermore, it can also be used in the SDS-PAGE gel staining.

Just like phosphate buffer, acetate buffer also has two components; acetic acid and sodium/potassium acetate. The pKa value of the acetate ion is 4.75. I’m sure you know how to calculate pKa/pKb values. Just in the case, if you don’t know how to calculate pKa value, please visit my post; how to calculate pKa of the phosphate buffer.

pKa and buffering range of acetate buffer

An acetate buffer works best at a pH of 4.75 ± 1 which means an acetate buffer working range is of pH 3.75 to 5.75. So, to prepare an acetate buffer, all you need to know three different parameters; pH, concentration, and the volume you want to prepare. Here, I have developed an online calculate called acetate buffer calculator that you can use to calculate the required amount of acetic acid and acetate salt to prepare the desired acetate buffer. What you need are the required volume, strength of the acetate buffer (concentration), and the pH value.

However, you have to enter the molecular weight of the acetate salt too. Here, I haven’t included it by default that is only because I want you to choose whether you want to use sodium acetate or potassium acetate as one of the components. Therefore, you need to add the molecular weight of the acetate salt (sodium acetate or potassium acetate). This acetate buffer calculator is just so simple that you don’t have to press any button to get the result. What you need to do is to enter the required date and you will see the amount of the individual components displayed instantly.

Once you know the required amount of the individual components, you need to dissolve the acetate in a minimum volume of distilled water in a volumetric flask and add the required volume of glacial acetic acid into it and maintain the volume by adding distilled water. Now, your acetate buffer is ready to be used.

There are few acetate buffer calculators available online such as Acetate Buffer (pH 3.6 to 5.6) Preparation and Recipe, Acetic Acid Buffer Calculator, buffer calculator by Cusabio, and buffer calculator by liverpool.co.uk but I’m sure you will like this acetate buffer calculator much more than any other calculators available elsewhere.