24/12/24 Purity
• A pure substance/element is one that is made up of just one
type of atom: all its atoms are exactly the same. Pure gold is
only made up gold atoms, but a gold alloy contains other
metals.
• Gold purity:
(a) The purity of gold is measured in carats. The total number
of carats is 24, so 24 carat gold is pure gold. For example, 9
carat gold is an alloy that is made up of 9 out of 24 parts of
gold; the rest are various metals.
(b) The purity is calculated in percentages. The amount of
carats can be written as a fraction, 9/24. This means that we
can divide the numerator by the denominator to get a decimal
number that can be converted into a percentage. 9 ÷ 24 = 0.375
= 37.5%
• Purity of silver:
(a) Silver is marked with the number of parts per thousand
that are silver. If it has 1000 out of a 1000 parts that are
silver, then it is pure silver. Silver marked 925 out of 1000,
for example, means that 925 atoms are silver and the rest
(75) are other metals.
(b) To calculate the purity, divide 925/1000 by 10 = 92.5/100
which is equivalent to 92.5%.
• Purity of diamonds:
(a) Diamonds are made from carbon. Pure diamonds are
colorless and translucent.
(b) If other atoms are mixed in with the carbon atoms, the
diamonds will become different colors. If a few carbon atoms
per million are replaced with nitrogen, the diamond will be
yellow. If some carbon atoms are replaced by boron, the
diamond will be blue. The rarest of all is a green diamond,
formed when one atom per 1000 of carbon atoms is replaced
by either nitrogen, nickel or hydrogen.
• Seawater:
(a) Seawater is a mixture of various salts like sodium chloride and
water. Sodium chloride can be separated from the water by
evaporating the water. This is sometimes done by letting
seawater fill flat and wide areas called beds and then waiting for
the water to be evaporated by the sun.
(b) The leftover salt after evaporation isn't pure sodium chloride
though. It contains other salts like calcium chloride and sodium
sulfate. In 1000g of seawater, 35g of it is made up of salts. 68%
of that 35g is sodium chloride. So, salts make up 3.5% of
seawater, and sodium chloride makes up 68% of those.
(c) To calculate the mass of salts or sodium chloride, take the
mass of all salts (3.5% of 1000 = 35g). The amount of sodium
chloride is 68% of that so 35g × 68/100 = 23.8g
• When a chemical reaction happens it is often very important
that the product is completely pure for various reasons. A
simple reaction will produce a pure product.
• In other reactions, there may be more than one product. When
that happens, the products are mixed up together. The products
may also get mixed up with some of the reactants if they have
not all been used up in the reaction.
