Question & Answer: As a chemist for an agricultural products company, you have just developed a new herbicide,…..

As a chemist for an agricultural products company, you have just developed a new herbicide, “Herbigon, ” that you think has the potential to kill weeds effectively. A sparingly soluble salt, Herbigon is dissolved in 1 M acetic acid for technical reasons having to do with its production. You have determined that the solubility product K_sp of Herbigon is 8.30 times 10^-6. Although the formula of this new chemical is a trade secret, it can be revealed that the formula for Herbigon is X-acetate (XCH_3COO, where “X” represents the top-secret cation of the salt). It is this cation that kills weeds. Since it is critical to have Herbigon dissolved (it won’t kill weeds as a suspension), you are working on adjusting the pH so Herbigon will be soluble at the concentration needed to kill weeds. What pH must the solution have to yield a solution in which the concentration of X^+ is 5.00 times 10^-3 M? The pK_a of acetic acid is 4.76. Express your answer numerically.