To increase the acidity of soil, you can add peat, which contains a complex acid mixture known as humic acid. The complexity of the humic acid makes it difficult to determine how acidic you are making the soil. You decide to use a titration to get a better measure. If titration of a 52.6 mL extraction from the peat requires 8.6 mL of 1.0 mM sodium hydroxide, what is the concentration of humic acid in the peat?

To find the concentration of humic acid in the peat, we can use the information provided from the titration.

In a titration, a known volume of a solution with a known concentration (the titrant) is added to a solution of the substance being analyzed until a reaction between the two is complete. By measuring the volume of the titrant required to reach the endpoint, we can determine the concentration of the substance being analyzed.

In this case, the titration is performed using a 1.0 mM sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution. The volume of the NaOH solution required to reach the endpoint is 8.6 mL.

We can use the equation:

M1V1 = M2V2

Where:
M1 = concentration of NaOH solution
V1 = volume of NaOH solution used
M2 = concentration of humic acid solution
V2 = volume of humic acid solution

Rearranging the equation, we can solve for M2:

M2 = (M1V1)/V2

Plugging in the values, we have:

M2 = (1.0 mM * 8.6 mL) / 52.6 mL

M2 ≈ 0.163 mM

Therefore, the concentration of humic acid in the peat is approximately 0.163 mM.