THE MOLE

Calculations on the ‘mole’ are an area of chemistry that can sometimes prove to
be a little difficult. However it is important for a good understanding of
quantitative chemistry and when you are familiar with a few basic ideas it will be
fairly easy to apply them to problem solving.

Before introducing the mole, it is necessary to review some simple atomic

structure from year 10.

THE RELATIVE MASS OF ATOMS

The mass of large objects is measured in kilograms (kg.) The kilogram is the
standard S.I. unit of mass to which the mass of all other objects can be
compared. Obviously atoms are far too small for their masses to be measured in
kilograms.

However we can compare the masses of atoms relative to each other, in other
words we measure their relative mass.

The standard on the relative atomic mass (Ar) scale to which we compare the
masses of all atoms is the carbon 12 isotope

12
C mass = 12.000 a.m.u.
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This isotope has 12 nucleons (6 protons and 6 neutrons) each with a mass of
1 a.m.u. The mass of the electrons is ignored since it is very small.

You will remember that the element chlorine has two isotopes;

35 37
Cl Cl
17 17

So what is the Relative atomic mass (Ar) of Chlorine???

There are therefore two different isotopic masses (that are really the same as
mass numbers), which are 35 and 37.

So what is the Relative atomic mass (Ar) of Chlorine???

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It may seem that the most obvious thing to do is to take the simple average of the
two isotopic masses:

35 + 37 = 36
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However, you will remember that chlorine 35 isotopes are three times more
abundant (more common) than chlorine 37 isotopes so a simple average would
not be very accurate.

We therefore use a 'weighted average', which takes into account the abundance
of the isotopes in the calculation.

In the case of chlorine the relative atomic mass is calculated as follows;

75 x 35 + 25 x 37 = 35.5 (no units)

100 100

We can say that on average, a chlorine atom has a relative mass of 35.5 and so
we say that the element chlorine has a relative atomic mass (Ar) of 35.5 (There
are no units because it is a relative mass, not an actual mass)

We can now define Relative atomic mass (R.A.M. or Ar) of an element as:

‘ the weighted average of the isotopic masses of the element compared to the
mass of one twelfth of a carbon 12 isotope’

The element magnesium has three isotopes with the following abundance;

24 25 26
Mg Mg Mg
12 12 12

78.6% 10.11% 11.29%

(The most common)

From this information, calculate the Ar of Magnesium.

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 THE MOLE

Now that you have reviewed atomic structure and the idea of Relative atomic
mass, we can introduce the idea of the mole. For convenience we will use the
rounded up values of Relative atomic masses shown in your Periodic table where
it is written above the symbol for each element.

Let us consider the simplest element Hydrogen (H). The Ar of Hydrogen is

actually 1.0008 but we will use the value of 1.0 for simplicity.

Obviously we cannot weigh a single Hydrogen atom in the lab using a balance.
We cannot even weigh out many thousands of atoms because a lab balance in
not sensitive enough for this.

However we can measure the mass of many, many trillions of atoms which has a
larger and measurable mass. If we know the number of atoms in a certain large
measurable mass we can use the balance to ‘count’ atoms.

In a similar way, people working at the bank would take a long time to count 5000
one baht coins one by one!! Instead, by knowing the mass of say, 1000 one baht
coins it becomes easy to ‘count out’ the 5000 coins or any other large number of
them simply by obtaining the required mass.

You probably know some special ‘number words’ that indicate a certain quantity.
Examples are, a ‘dozen’ which means 12, and a ‘century’ means 100 etc

In chemistry there is an important number word called the ‘MOLE’. This indicate
a very large number of any particles e.g. atoms, molecules, ions, electrons etc

One Mole of particles is:

6 X 1023 or 600000000000000000000000 particles !!!

[ This number is called the ‘Avogadro number’ (N) ]

It is the number of particles in one mole.

The Avogadro number is an enormous number that is far too large

for your brain to really understand. There has not been this many
seconds in time since the universe began 15 billion years ago!!

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The mass of 1 mole of Hydrogen atoms is found to be 1.0g
In other words, the mass of 6 X 1023 Hydrogen atoms = 1.0g

We can say that the Molar mass of Hydrogen = 1.0g per mole (1.0g/mole)

You can see that the Molar mass of Hydrogen is

numerically equal to the Ar of Hydrogen
Ar of Hydrogen = 1.0

Molar mass of Hydrogen = 1.0 g per mole

What is the mass of 2 moles of Hydrogen? Answer =

How many moles of Hydrogen are there in 0.5g of Hydrogen? Answer =

Bonus: How many atoms are there in 5 moles of Hydrogen? Answer =

You can also see that:

Number of moles of hydrogen = MASS (g)

MOLAR MASS (1g/mole)

Rearrange the equation yourself

Mass of hydrogen (g) =

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Let’s consider another element, Carbon. The Ar of this element is 12.0

It should be obvious that one atom of Carbon has twelve times the mass of one
atom of Hydrogen
H

………..and of course two C atoms have twelve times the mass of two H atoms.

H H

C
C

but a single Carbon atom and twelve Hydrogen atoms have the same mass

H H H

H H H

H H H

C H H H

Which has the greatest mass, 5 carbon atoms or 60 hydrogen atoms? Explain.

Which has the greater number of atoms, 100g of carbon or 100g of Hydrogen?
Explain

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Now you can see that:

The same number of atoms of Carbon and Hydrogen cannot

have the same mass. A pile of __________ atoms has twelve
times the mass of the same number of ____________ atoms.

The same mass of Carbon and Hydrogen cannot have the same
number of atoms. There will be twelve times as many _________
atoms as ___________ atoms

Now, the answer to the next question is really simple if you think about it ! You do
not need a calculator at all. (Look at the box above if necessary to help you)

What is the mass of 1 mole ( 6 x 1023 atoms) of Carbon ?

Answer = g

Explain how you got the answer

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 1 Mole of Carbon = 12.000 g

Now you can see that the Molar mass of any element is will always be
numerically equal to the Ar of that element

Ar of Carbon = 12

Molar mass of Carbon= 12 g per mole

How many moles of carbon are there in 36g of carbon? Answer =

What is the mass of 10 moles of carbon? Answer =

Which is the greatest mass of carbon, 4 moles or 40g ?

Answer =

What is the mass of 1 mole (the molar mass) of Magnesium?

Answer =

Complete the following table (include units in each box where necessary)

Hydrogen Carbon Magnesium Helium

Ar

Molar mass

Mass of 1 mole

Number of atoms
present in 1 mole

Mass of 4 moles

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How many moles are there in 112g of iron?

What is the mass of 3 moles of calcium?

How many moles are there in:

a) 6g of carbon moles =

b) 28g of iron moles =

c) 40g of helium moles =

d) 10g of hydrogen moles =

What is the mass of:

a) 2 moles of Helium = g

b) 2 moles of Calcium = g

Bonus: (these IB type questions would never be in your exams but they will
probably show if you really understand the mole concept.

Question 1. What mass of helium has the same number of atoms as there are in
560g of iron ?

Question 2. What mass of Carbon has half as many atoms as there are in 6g
Hydrogen?

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 Relative Molecular Mass
The same idea of relative mass and moles can be applied to substances that are
made up of molecules not atoms, such as diatomic elements (e.g. chlorine Cl2) or
compounds such as water (H2O)

Consider the compound water, with the formula H2O.

Ar H = 1
O
H H Ar O = 16

We say the Relative molecular mass ( M r )

= ( 2 X 1 ) + ( 1 X 16 ) = 18

1 mole of water molecules has a mass of 18g.

The Molar mass of water is 18g/mole

Consider the element Chlorine. This element is a gas, which is composed of
diatomic molecules where two atoms of chlorine are bonded together.

Cl Cl

It therefore has the formula Cl2

Relative molecular mass ( Mr) of chlorine gas is =

What is the mass (in grams) of 1 mole of chlorine molecules? Answer =

What is the Molar mass of chlorine gas? Answer =

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*For ionic compounds such as sodium bromide (which contain ions not
molecules) we sometimes use the term Relative formula mass rather than
Relative molecular mass. However the use of the term Relative molecular
mass for ionic compounds is still acceptable even though they do not consist
of molecules.

What is the Relative formula mass of Sodium bromide (formula = NaBr)?

What is the Molar mass of NaBr?

CALCULATION OF RELATIVE MOLECULAR MASS

Calculate the relative molecular mass (Mr) of the following substances. The
relative atomic masses (Ar) values of the elements can be found on the Periodic
table.

Do not forget to show all the working out in your calculations!!

a) Magnesium oxide, MgO

Answer = Mr = (1 x 24) + (1 x 16) = 40 (so the molar mass = 40g/mole)

b) Water

c) Sulfuric acid, H2SO4

d) Carbon dioxide, CO2

e) Glucose, C6H12O6

f) Calcium Hydroxide, Ca(OH)2

g) Barium nitrate, Ba(NO3)2

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