GENERAL CHEMISTRY 2

SVDPA eCLASSROOM

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
OF SOLUTIONS:
CONCENTRATION
UNITS, MOLE
FRACTION, AND
MOLALITY
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Concentration expressions are often based on the number of moles of one or

more components of a solution. The three most commonly used are molarity, which had
been discussed earlier, mole fraction, and molality.

MOLE FRACTION

Mole Fraction is a way of describing solution composition. It is the ratio of the

number of moles of one component of a mixture to the total number of moles of all
components. This is symbolized by the Greek lowercase letter chi, with a subscript to
indicate the component of interest. It is computed using the formula:

Mole fraction of component = Moles of component

Total moles of all components

For example, the mole fraction of NaOH in a sodium hydroxide solution is

represented as NaOH.

On the other hand, the mole(s) of a given component can be calculated this way:

Mole of a substance (component) = Mass of the component in grams

Molar Mass of the component in grams/mole

Example:
What is the mole fraction of the solute in a 40% by mass ethanol (C2H6O) solution in
water?
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The problem asks the mole fraction of the solute (C2H6O), given only the percentage by
mass (40%) of the solute in the solution.

Given:
40% by mass ethanol solution
MM ethanol = 46 g/mole
MM water = 18 g/mole

Unknown:
mole fraction of solute

The following steps can be employed to solve the problem:

Step 1:

In converting concentration units based on the mass or moles of a solute and

solvent or mass percentage, it is useful to assume a certain total mass of solution.
Assume there is exactly 100 grams of solution. Because the solution is 40% ethanol
(C2H6O), it contains 40 grams of ethanol and 60 grams of water.

Step 2:

Change the masses of the components ethanol and water to number of moles.

mole ethanol = 40 g = 0.87 mol

46g/mol

mole water = 60 g = 3.33 mol

18g/mol
Step 3:

Substitute the values obtained in the formula and solve for the mole fraction of
the solute ethanol, and the solvent water.

(x) mole fraction ethanol = mole ethanol

mole ethanol + mole water

x ethanol = 0.87 mole

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0.87 mol + 3.33 mol

= 0.21

The mole fraction of water can be solved using the formula:

xwater = mole water =3.33mol water = 0.79

mole ethanol + mole water 0.87mol+3.33 mol

Another way to obtain the mole fraction of water is to simply subtract the mole
fraction of ethanol from 1.00 to obtain that of water. This is possible since there are only
two components in the solution.

The mole fractions of all components of a solution (A, B, …..) must add to unity,
that is:

xA + xB + . . . . . . = 1

MOLALITY

Molality (symbolized by m) is the ratio of the number of moles of solute per

kilogram of solvent. It is not the same as molarity, even if their names are very similar.
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In molarity, the number of moles of solute is divided by the volume of the solution, in
liters.

One offshoot of the difference of molality from molarity is that molality does not
change with the solution’s temperature. In molarity, the volume of a solution can change
with temperature due to expansion or contraction, while the mass of solvent in molality
does not change with temperature.

In equation form:

m = moles of solute or m = n solute m = mol/kg

kilogram of solvent m solvent

In problems involving molality, additional formulas are sometimes used to get the final
answer. One very useful formula is that for density:

d=m/v where : d = density,

m = mass
v = volume

Example:
What is the molality of a solution containing 0.75 moles of sodium hydroxide in
500 milliliters of water at 25oC? The density of water at 25oC is 1.0 gram per milliliter.

Given:
d H2O = 1.0 g/mL
V H2O = 500 mL
MM H2O = 18 g/mol
n NaOH = 0.75 mol

Unknown:
molality of NaOH solution
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The following steps can be followed to solve the problem:

Step 1:
Determine the mass of water using the density formula. Also convert the mass in
grams to kilograms.

d= m/v
mH2O = d H2O x V = 1.0 g/mL x 500 mL = 500 grams x 1 kg/1000 g = 0.50 kg

Step 2:
Substitute the given data in the formula to solve for molality.

m = moles of solute
kilogram of solvent

m = 0.75 moles NaOH

0.50 kg solvent

m = 1.5 molal or 1.5 mol/kg