Question

why is the neutral ph of water so important

Answer 1

hmmm a bit difficult question... similar question would be why is boltzman constant what it is... lets say that water is one hell of a molecule! for example it supports hydrogen bonds (if they would not exist in water melting point of watter would be a lot lower than it is, water anomaly would not be possible) also it cosists of elements which are pretty abundant (hydrogen is most common element in universe and oxygen constructs most of our minerals, allows us to breathe etc.), there are many peculiar things about water! now lets see... water is constructed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, and they bond with covalent bond (this what i wrote made me laugh -> bond, james bond :D), although waters liquid structure is not exactly known (some will jump on this but i dont have my book here to attach picture) it is known that water can dissasociate to H+ and OH- (H+ is actually H3O+), now we come to a point of neutral where we say that acidic conditions are where pH is below 7 and basic are where pH is over 7, now why is that pH 7 neutral?! lets just say to make it easy that amount of H+ and OH- ions per unit of volume (other words concentration) is same (also pH is not measure of concentration of H+ ions, but activity) so you have pure water

damn i have to go, but if nobody answers you ill try to answer it to the end... meanwhile if you have more sub questions, please do ask because im not exactly sure what you need for answer!

Answer 2

Importance of pH

The pH of water determines the solubility (amount that can be dissolved in the water) and biological availability (amount that can be utilized by aquatic life) of chemical constituents such as nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen, and carbon) and heavy metals (lead, copper, cadmium, etc.). For example, in addition to affecting how much and what form of phosphorus is most abundant in the water, pH also determines whether aquatic life can use it. In the case of heavy metals, the degree to which they are soluble determines their toxicity. Metals tend to be more toxic at lower pH because they are more soluble