Talk:Sodium boric acid
Merge discussion
[edit]Sodium Boric Acid refers to the sodium salt of boric acid also known as sodium borate.
Boric Acid has pKa values 9.14, 12.74, and 13.80.
Since a compound has most of its buffering capacity within 1 pH of its pKa, Sodium Borate would primarily be useful as a buffer in the pH ranges 8.14-10.14 and 11.74-14.80.
I would suggest however that Sodium Boric Acid should be renamed Sodium Borate and indicating the formula as NaH2BO3. Since Borax is typically of the form Na2B4O7 and represents an oxidation of two molecule of Borate to sodium tetraborate and subsequent dehydration to the anhydrous borax though since this the oxidation occurs in water and borax is highly soluble in water. The borax will exist in a hydrated solution state and only made anhydrous by extraction of the water.