There are different types of water solutions that are used intensively in industries and chemical laboratories today and many companies are providing them to other companies that need them. It just so happens that each type of solution can vary in concentration and strength and different industries may demand different types of such mixtures. Therefore, it may be imperative to contact your provider to discuss your specific needs. These chemical solutions would range from reagents in aqueous solutions to indicator solutions, each of which has different uses and different properties.
Perhaps one of the most used chemical solutions are buffer solutions. At the same time, they are nature’s most natural solutions. Did you know that seawater and blood are some of the best examples? Buffers are actually mixtures of a weak acid and its salt or a weak alkali and its salt. An example is the mixture of acetic acid and sodium acetate. Buffer solutions are of vital importance to control the pH range of the system where they are present. This pH control is important in many industrial applications including chemical manufacturing. In processes involving biochemical reactions, a limited pH range keeps such reactions at a normal rate, while too much acidity or alkalinity could slow or stop chemical reactions. Therefore, buffer solutions are important in the fermentation process and in pH measurement.
Another type of water solution is the indicator solution, also known as an acid-base indicator. These are actually weak acid or weak base solutions and are used to determine if a solution is alkaline or acidic. However, most indicators work only within a particular pH range. Common indicator solutions include thymol blue, methyl orange, bromothymol blue, phenolphthalein, and bromophenol blue. These solutions are mainly used in analytical chemistry when titrations are needed, during which a color change can indicate alkalinity or acidity.
Standard solutions are another type of laboratory solutions used in titrations. The importance of these solutions comes from their certain concentration, which is basically ideal in proper measurements of the presence of a substance or solute in a solution. Standard solutions are expressed in their normality or molarity. Substances used include acids such as acetic acid, sulfuric acid, and hydrochloric acid in aqueous solution; bases such as potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide; and salts such as potassium chloride, calcium chloride, and ammonium sulfate. Since the standard solution has a known amount of one substance, this can be used to determine the precise amount of another substance during chemical analysis. For example, if you have a sodium hydroxide solution whose concentration you need to determine, you can use a standard hydrochloric acid solution. When calculating the amount of HCI needed to neutralize the solution, the amount of NaOH will be calculated.
Aqueous solutions can also include percentage solutions, which are more understandable to people with little background in chemistry than molar solutions. A percent solution can refer to the ratio of the mass of solute to the mass of solvent. However, there may be differences. For example, percentage can mean volume to volume ratio or, in some cases, mass to volume ratio. However, the use of volume may not produce accurate measurements in thermodynamics, since volume changes with temperature and pressure. In either case, percent solutions are used to determine the amount of solute present in the solution. This is relevant during chemical analysis and calculations.
There are also standard conductivity solutions manufactured by water companies for their own use or for use by other companies. Conductivity standards are important in testing the quality of pure water, which involves a test to determine the electrical conductivity of water. Such conductivity standard solutions contain potassium chloride (KCI). Since the goal of any analytical measurement is precision, standardized solutions are considered necessary in the preparation and testing of chemicals.
