CC 102 – QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE CHEMISTRY

College of Liberal Arts, Sciences and Education

Prepared by: DENNIS M. DIMARANAN
ERWIN R. ABRENCILLO, PhD
MODULE 7C
DILUTION OF SOLUTION
Brief Introduction or Description
Have you ever made orange juice from concentrate? Added a scoop of liquid soap to a bucket
of hot water? Measured a teaspoon of vanilla into cake batter? If so, you already know how to do a dilution!
Nearly everyone does dilutions as a part of their everyday lives. Dilutions can range from rough estimates, like
adding liquid detergent to a load of laundry, to the extremely precise measurements, like diluting a chemical
stock to make a series of calibration standards.
No matter which field of science you are interested in, making accurate dilutions is an essential part of
your laboratory skill set. Far from being a routine chore, mastering dilutions requires quantitative thinking and
a precise attention to detail. This lab activity gives you an opportunity to experiment with different methods of
preparing dilutions and even create your own protocol.
Before we get started, we need to cover some basic terminology. A concentrated solution to be diluted is
called a stock solution. A working solution is used routinely for experiments and is often prepared by diluting a
stock solution. Preparing working solutions from stocks saves work and reduces error and since you don’t have
to measure powdered chemicals each time you want to make a working solution .Chemists use many different
methods to define dilutions, some of which are described in this modules .
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the module, you should be able to:
Calculate the new concentration or volume for a dilution or concentration of a solution.
Lesson 1 – DILUTION OF SOLUTION

We are often concerned with how much solute is dissolved in a given amount of solution. We will begin our
discussion of solution concentration with two related and relative terms: dilute and concentrated.

A dilute solution is one in which there is a relatively small amount of solute dissolved in the solution.

A concentrated solution contains a relatively large amount of solute.

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 CC 102 – QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE CHEMISTRY
College of Liberal Arts, Sciences and Education
Prepared by: DENNIS M. DIMARANAN
ERWIN R. ABRENCILLO, PhD

These two terms do not provide any quantitative information (actual numbers), but they are often useful in
comparing solutions in a more general sense. These terms also do not tell us whether or not the solution is saturated
or unsaturated, or whether the solution is "strong" or "weak". These last two terms will have special meanings
when we discuss acids and bases, so be careful not to confuse them.

Often, a worker will need to change the concentration of a solution by changing the amount of solvent. Dilution is
the addition of solvent, which decreases the concentration of the solute in the solution. Concentration is the
removal of solvent, which increases the concentration of the solute in the solution. (Do not confuse the two uses
of the word concentration here!)

In both dilution and concentration, the amount of solute stays the same. This gives us a way to calculate what the
new solution volume must be for the desired concentration of solute. From the definition of molarity,

molarity = moles of solute / liters of solution

we can solve for the number of moles of solute:

moles of solute = (molarity)(liters of solution)

A simpler way of writing this is to use M to represent molarity and V to represent volume. So the equation
becomes

moles of solute = MV

Because this quantity does not change before and after the change in concentration, the product MV must be the
same before and after the concentration change. Using numbers to represent the initial and final conditions, we
have

M1V1 = M2V2

Wherein:

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 CC 102 – QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE CHEMISTRY
College of Liberal Arts, Sciences and Education
Prepared by: DENNIS M. DIMARANAN
ERWIN R. ABRENCILLO, PhD
• M1: refers to the original ‘known’ concentration of the solution;
• V1: refers to the original ‘known’ volume of the solution;
• M2: represents the concentration of the diluted solution; and
• V2: represents the final, usually ‘unknown’, volume of the solution.

as the dilution equation. The volumes must be expressed in the same units. Note that this equation gives only the
initial and final conditions, not the amount of the change. The amount of change is determined by subtraction.

SAMPLE PROBLEM NO. 1

If 25.0 mL of a 2.19 M solution are diluted to 72.8 mL, what is the final concentration?

Solution

It does not matter which set of conditions is labelled 1 or 2, as long as the conditions are paired together properly.
Using the dilution equation, we have

(2.19 M)(25.0 mL) = M2(72.8 mL)

Solving for the second concentration (noting that the milliliter units cancel),

M2 = 0.752 M

The concentration of the solution has decreased. In going from 25.0 mL to 72.8 mL, 72.8 − 25.0 = 47.8 mL of
solvent must be added.

SAMPLE PROBLEM NO. 2

In a hospital emergency room, a physician orders an intravenous (IV) delivery of 100 mL of 0.5% KCl for a
patient suffering from hypokalemia (low potassium levels). Does an aide run to a supply cabinet and take out an
IV bag containing this concentration of KCl?
Not likely. It is more probable that the aide must make the proper solution from an IV bag of sterile solution and
a more concentrated, sterile solution, called a stock solution, of KCl. The aide is expected to use a syringe to draw
up some stock solution and inject it into the waiting IV bag and dilute it to the proper concentration. Thus the aide
must perform a dilution calculation.

If the stock solution is 10.0% KCl and the final volume and concentration need to be 100 mL and
0.50%, respectively, then it is an easy calculation to determine how much stock solution to use:

(10%)V1 = (0.50%)(100 mL)

V1 = 5 mL

Of course, the addition of the stock solution affects the total volume of the diluted solution, but the
final concentration is likely close enough even for medical purposes.

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 CC 102 – QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE CHEMISTRY
College of Liberal Arts, Sciences and Education
Prepared by: DENNIS M. DIMARANAN
ERWIN R. ABRENCILLO, PhD
Medical and pharmaceutical personnel are constantly dealing with dosages that require concentration
measurements and dilutions. It is an important responsibility: calculating the wrong dose can be
useless, harmful, or even fatal!

Lesson 2 – Dilution Method

A. Simple Dilution Method

To obtain the desired concentration, a simple dilution is one in which a unit volume of a liquid material of interest
is blended with an adequate volume of a solvent liquid. The total number of unit volumes in which the material
will be dissolved is the dilution factor. To get the real dilution, the diluted material must be completely combined.
A 1:5 dilution (also known as a “1 to 5” dilution) involves mixing 1 unit volume of solute (the item to be diluted)
with 4 unit volume of solvent medium (therefore, 1 + 4 = 5 = dilution factor).
A dilution factor of 5 is obtained by diluting frozen orange juice concentrate with four extra cans of cold water
(the dilution solvent), i.e., the orange concentrate represents one unit volume to which four additional cans
(identical unit volumes) of water have been added. As a result, the orange concentrate is now dispersed throughout
5 unit volumes. This is referred to as a 1:5 dilution and is now 1/5 as concentrated as before.

B. Serial Dilution Method

Diluting a stock or standard solution many times in succession is known as serial dilution. For each dilution, the
dilution factor is usually kept constant, resulting in an exponential drop in concentration. Serial dilutions are used
to make extremely diluted solutions as well as solutions for studies requiring an exponential or logarithmic
concentration curve. In experimental sciences such as biochemistry, pharmacology, microbiology, and physics,
serial dilutions are commonly utilized.
A serial dilution is a series of dilutions used to reduce a dense cell culture to a more acceptable concentration.
Each dilution lowers the bacterium concentration by a certain amount. It is possible to determine how many germs
started with by calculating the overall dilution for the entire series.
The dilution factor or the dilution is the initial volume divided by the final volume.
DF = Vi / Vf

Importance of Dilution

• A dilution can be used to not only lower the concentration of the analyte being tested so that it is below
acceptable limits but also to help minimize interferences from other compounds in the sample that could
artificially change the analysis.
• Dilution is the process of weakening or deconcentrating a solution. Serial dilutions are used in
microbiology to reduce bacterial concentrations to the required concentration for a particular test method
or to a concentration that is easier to count when plated to an agar plate.
• Serial dilution provides a number of advantages, including the fact that the materials required are usually
already in the lab and don’t require any new engineering. As the experiment develops, the conditions can
be tweaked.

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 CC 102 – QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE CHEMISTRY
College of Liberal Arts, Sciences and Education
Prepared by: DENNIS M. DIMARANAN
ERWIN R. ABRENCILLO, PhD
• Serial dilutions are most commonly employed in serological processes, where technicians must dilute
serum to find the smallest concentration that still produces a reaction.

LEARNING TASKS
Solve the following problems
1. What is the difference between dilution and concentration?
2. What quantity remains constant when you dilute a solution?
3. A 1.88 M solution of NaCl has an initial volume of 34.5 mL. What is the final concentration of the solution
if it is diluted to 134 mL?
4. A 0.664 M solution of NaCl has an initial volume of 2.55 L. What is the final concentration of the solution
if it is diluted to 3.88 L?
5. If 1.00 mL of a 2.25 M H2SO4 solution needs to be diluted to 1.00 M, what will be its final volume?
6. If 12.00 L of a 6.00 M HNO3 solution needs to be diluted to 0.750 M, what will be its final volume?
7. If 665 mL of a 0.875 M KBr solution are boiled gently to concentrate the solute to 1.45 M, what will be
its final volume?
8. If 1.00 L of an LiOH solution is boiled down to 164 mL and its initial concentration is 0.00555 M, what
is its final concentration?
9. How much water must be added to 75.0 mL of 0.332 M FeCl3(aq) to reduce its concentration to 0.250 M?
10. How much water must be added to 1.55 L of 1.65 M Sc(NO3)3(aq) to reduce its concentration to 1.00 M?

References:

Harvey, D V. (2010). Modern analytical chemistry. De Pauw University

West, D.M. (2015) Fundamentals of analytical chemistry 9th Edition

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