Question #4bb1b

1 Answer
Jan 30, 2015

The dominant form of the phosphoric acid is HPO24 and its concentration is 0.639 mmol/L.

So, start with your three balcanced chemical equations

H3PO4+H2OH2PO4+H+3O, pKa1=2.12
H2PO4+H2OHPO24+H+3O, pKa2=7.21
HPO24+H2OPO34+H+3O, pKa3=12.7

Because the pH of blood lies between pKa2 and pKa3, the dominant form of the acid will be HPO24. Because pKa2 and pKa3 vary by more than 4 units, the concentration of PO34 will be negligible.

So, you know that the total phosphate concentration is 1.05 mmol/L. This means that

[H2PO4]+[HPO24]=1.05mmol/L (assuming [PO34] is negligible). (1)

Since you're dealing with a buffer, the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation can be used

#pH = pKa_2 + log(([HPO_4^(2-)])/([H_2PO_4^(-)]))#

7.40=7.21+log([HPO24][H2PO4])[HPO24][H2PO4]=1.55

Plug this value into (1) and you'll get

[HPO24]1.55+[HPO24]=1.05, which will result in

[HPO24]=0.639 mmol/L

The concentration of H2PO4 will be [H2PO4]=0.412 mmol/L

If you're interested, you can check the assumption that [PO34] is negligible; the equations will produce

[PO34]=0.00000320 mmol/L for all intended purposes, this is equal to zero.

One more thing...the results match the known proportions of dyhidrogen phosphate and hydrogen phosphate in extracellular fluid (39% for the former, 61% for the latter).