Concept of pH

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pH is a measure of hydrogen ion concentration; a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. Aqueous solutions at 25°C with a pH less than seven are acidic, while those with a pH greater than seven are basic or alkaline. A pH level of is 7.0 at 25°C is defined as 'neutral' because the concentration of H3O+equals the concentration of OH− in pure water. pH is a logarithmic measure of hydrogen ion concentration, originally defined by Danish biochemist Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen in 1909 .

pH = -log[H⁺]

where log is a base-10 logarithm and [H⁺] is the concentration of hydrogen ions in moles per liter of solution. According to the Compact Oxford English Dictionary, the "p" stands for the German word for "power", potenz, so pH is an abbreviation for "power of hydrogen" .

IUPAC has endorsed a pH scale based on comparison with a standard buffer of known pH using electrochemical measurements. The IUPAC pH scale is very slightly different from the theoretical definition, since it considers factors that are not included in the (thermodynamic) theoretical pH.

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