Answer:

A buffer resists changes to pH when small amounts of strong acid

or base are added to it.
Explanation:
Buffers have many applications. Some of these are
Maintenance of life
Most biochemical processes work within a relatively small pH
range.
The body uses buffers solution to maintain a constant pH.
For example, blood contains a carbonate/bicarbonate buffer that
keeps the pH close to 7.4.
Biochemical Assays
Enzyme activity depends on pH, so the pH during an enzyme
assay must stay constant.
In shampoos.
Many shampoos use a citric acid/sodium citrate shampoo to
maintain a slightly acidic "pH balance".
This counteracts the basicity of the detergents present in the
shampoo.
In baby lotions.
Baby lotions are buffered to a pH of about 6.
This hinders the growth of bacteria within the diaper and helps
prevent diaper rash.
In the brewing Industry
Buffer solutions are added before fermentation begins.
This prevents the solutions becoming too acidic and spoiling the
product.
In the textile Industry.
Many dyeing processes use buffers to maintain the correct pH for
various dyes.
In laundry detergents.
Many laundry detergents use buffers to prevent their natural
ingredients from breaking down.

In the Body
Perhaps their most pertinent everyday application, buffers are never in short
supply within the human body. A buffer of carbonic acid (H2CO3) and
hydrogen carbonate (HCO3-), for example, work in unison to keep the pH of
the bloodstream at a neutral 7.4. Another example of buffers within the human
body is the "hemoglobin" complex, which binds to excess protons (in other
words, hydrogen ions) muscles release during exercise so that the body can
use the oxygen they produce alongside the hydrogen.

Commercial Products
Buffers are also important in certain commercial household products.
Shampoo, for example, contains buffers of citric acid and sodium hydroxide,
which work to balance out the natural alkalinity of soap, which would
otherwise burn the scalp. If you have a baby, you've probably noticed that
applying baby lotion to his rash relieves it rather quickly. This is because baby
lotion is buffered to a slightly acidic pH of six, which inhibits the growth of
bacteria and other pathogens.

Alcohol Production
Buffers don't just aid in aspects of everyday life that are good for the health,
however. Central to alcohol production is a process called "fermentation,"
wherein sugars convert to alcohol in the absence of oxygen. Unregulated, this
process could result in spoilage of the material being fermented, so beer, wine
and liquor manufacturers often add buffers to their mixes, which regulate their
pH levels such that this isn't possible.

I work in the pharmaceutical quality control sector. I use buffers on a daily basis. One of
the key tests that we perform on product is an active content and impurity assay.

This uses a technique called High Pressures Liquid Chromatography. This technique
separates everything in the product so that the active and impurities can be accurately
assessed.

In order for this to be reliable and repeatable you have to fix a number of variables. One
of these is often the pH of the mobile phase. The mobile phase is the liquid part of liquid
chromatography and is responsible for pushing the sample through the system as well
as part of the all important separation.

Reliable repeatable separation can be dependent on a specific pH and so mobile phases

are usually made with buffer solution.

Well, there’s this thing called life.

Many biochemical processes are heavily pH dependent and the medium they happen in
is buffered.

Blood, for example, contains multiple species which buffer it within a few hundredths of
a pH unit.

905 Vie You may need to work with materials in that solution in variable quantities that
would change that solution’s pH, and you want to resist that change because something
else that needs to happen in that solution is pH-dependent. So it’s not that you want the
pH to change; rather, you want to resist such change — ideally not to change at all.

So for instance, suppose you need to carry out a reaction using an enzyme, and see the
results with varying amounts of some added substance. The added substance is a strong
acid or base, and the enzyme has a certain narrow pH range it’s active in. Without a pH
buffer, you’d add a certain amount of the substance and then the reaction would stop,
solely as a result of the pH change, a trivial cause. Then you’d never find out what the
effects of more reaction product would be, because the product would cease to be
produced.

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