- Biochemical processes are markedly impaired by even small changes in the concentrations of free H+ ions.
- It is therefore usually required to stabilise the H + concentration in vitro without affecting the system's functioning.
A buffer keeps the pH of a solution constant by taking up protons that are released during reactions, or by releasing protons when they are consumed by reactions.
The observation that partially neutralised solutions of weak acids or bases are resistant to changes in pH when small amounts of strong acids or bases are added led to the concept of the ‘buffer’. In the table, the most common biological buffers are listed according to their optimal buffer range.
The table also gives some hints for potential applications and shows advantages or disadvantages of the listed buffer substances.
Buffer systems described in the literature are usually used for experiments to enable direct comparison of results.
Again and again, it is shown that the conditions in experiments - even in standard systems - could be optimised.
In our Info Point "Biological Buffers" we provide a selection of important information from the literature that might help you in solving your everyday problems as well as give recommendations for the development and optimization of your test systems: Which requirements do biological buffers have to fulfil? Which criteria need to be taken into account? How is the pH value adjusted effectively?
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