Which ions are being produced by this process, assuming that each of the chemical compounds dissociate into their constituent parts once they are dissolved in
water?
Preparation of the correct buffer is key to any good biological experiment and it is important that you understand how to calculate the mass of each chemical
required to make that buffer and what the resulting concentration of those constituents will be in moles per liter.
Your text book explains that moles are just a way to express the amount of a substance, such that one mole is equal to 6.02 x 1023 particles of that
substance. These particles can be can be atoms, molecules, ions etc, so 1 mole of water is equal to 6.02 x 1023 water molecules, or 1 mole of Na+ is equal to
6.02 x 1023 Na+ ions. Since different chemicals have different molecular weights (based on the number of protons and neutrons each atom contains) 1 mole or
6.02 x 1023 atoms of oxygen (O) will have a mass of 16g whereas 1 mole or 6.02 x 1023 atoms of sodium (Na) will have a mass of 23g
You can read more about the definition of moles here if you wish https://www.britannica.com/science/mole-chemistry