Measuring with Moles

Measuring Amounts
• Measuring atoms and molecules is very difficult
because they are very small, and any amount of
a substance will contain a huge number of them.
• A water bottle containing 500mL of water has
approximately
167,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
molecules of water in it.
• Working with very large numbers like this can
lead to many mistakes, unless scientific notation
is used.
Scientific Notation
• Scientific notation is a compact way
of writing very large or very small
numbers.
• Count the number of times the decimal
place needs to be moved to make the
coefficient have a value of between 0-10.
• If you are starting with a very small
number, the scientific notation should
have a negative exponent.
• If you are starting with a very large
number, the scientific notation should
have a positive exponent.
• The mass of the sun is about
1,989,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg.
What is this number in scientific notation?

• The answer is: 1.989x1030kg

• The mass of a hydrogen atom is about

0.0000000000000000000000166g.
What is this number in scientific notation?
• The answer is 1.66x10-24g.
Moles
• Instead of using these very large numbers in chemical calculations,
scientists will instead use the mole, a unit that measures the amount of
particles in a substance.
• One mole of any substance = 6.02x1023 particles (atoms or molecules).
• This number is called Avagadro’s number, after the Italian scientist who came
up with the idea.
• Molar mass is the mass of one mole of a given substance.
• Molar mass can be calculated by adding up the atomic mass of
every component of a molecule.
• Calculate the molar mass of each of these substances:
• Hydrogen gas (H2)
• 2.0 g/mol
• Oxygen gas (O2)
• 32.0 g/mol
• Carbon dioxide (CO2)
• 44.0 g/mol
• Water (H2O)
• 18.0 g/mol
• Ethanol (C2H6O)
• 46.0 g/mol
• Standard molar volume is the volume occupied by any gas at standard
temperature and pressure (STP).
• STP = 0°C and 1 atmosphere
• Standard molar volume is equal to 22.4L/mol.
Molar Conversions
• Moles can be used to convert one form of measurement (mass, volume,
or number of particles) into another.
Percent Composition
• Percent composition is the percent by mass of
each element present in a compound.
• What is the percent composition of hydrogen and
oxygen in water?

• H2O molar mass = 16 + 1 + 1 = 18g/mol

• 2 / 18 = 0.111 or 11.1% Hydrogen

• 16/18 = 0.889 or 88.9% Oxygen

• Any sample of water will have this same percent

composition.
• Nail polish remover is made of
acetone, which has the formula C3H6O.
What is the percent composition of
each element in acetone?

• Calculate the formula mass:

• (12 x 3) + (1 x 6) + 16 = 58

• Find the percent of each element:

• Carbon: 36/58 = 0.621 or 62.1%
• Hydrogen: 6/58 = 0.103 or 10.3%
• Oxygen: 16/58 = 0.276 or 27.6%
Empirical Formula
• Percent composition can be used to derive the empirical formula of a
compound.
• The empirical formula is the simplest whole-number ratio of all the
elements in a compound.
• An unknown compound is chemically analyzed and determined to contain
38.6% potassium, 13.8% nitrogen, and 47.5% oxygen. What is its empirical
formula?
• First, assume you have exactly 100g of the unknown compound.
Determine how many moles of each element is present.
• 38.6g K / 39 g/mol = 0.99 mol K
• 13.8g N / 14 g/mol = 0.99 mol N
• 47.5g O / 16 g/mol = 2.98 mol O
• Second, divide each amount by the smallest number of moles to get the
mole ratio.
• 0.99mol K / 0.99mol = 1.0
• 0.99 mol N / 0.99mol = 1.0
• 2.98 mol O / 0.99mol = 3.0
• Use this ratio to write the empirical formula of the compound.
• KNO3