Three drops of a 1.0 mol dm-3 solution of NaOH are added to 20 cm3 of a solution of pH 8.4. The pH of the resulting solution will be

Answer Details

When NaOH is added to a solution, it reacts with water to form hydroxide ions (OH-) and sodium ions (Na+). The OH- ions can then react with hydrogen ions (H+) in the solution, causing the pH to increase. In this case, three drops of a 1.0 mol dm-3 solution of NaOH are added to a solution of pH 8.4. The amount of NaOH added is very small compared to the volume of the solution, so we can assume that the amount of water in the solution remains relatively constant. The reaction between NaOH and water can be written as follows: NaOH + H2O → Na+ + OH- + H2O The OH- ions produced by the reaction will react with the H+ ions in the solution: H+ + OH- → H2O This will cause the concentration of H+ ions in the solution to decrease, and the pH to increase. The exact change in pH will depend on the amount of H+ ions in the original solution and the amount of OH- ions produced by the reaction with NaOH. However, since the pH of the original solution is already quite high at 8.4, the addition of a small amount of NaOH will not cause a significant increase in pH. Therefore, the pH of the resulting solution will be greater than 8.4, but not by a significant amount. Therefore, the correct answer is "Greater than 8.4".