AAY10B

Physical Chemistry 1
Mole Concept and Stoichiometry

Dr.G.RoshanDeen
NaturalSciences&ScienceEducationAG
NationalInstituteofEducation
NanyangTechnologicalUniversity.

Mole Concept
When we shop, a few items always come in definite numbers.
Items

Unit

Number

Boots

Pair

Eggs

Dozen

12

Playing cards

Pack

52

The mass of an element is given by the atomic mass unit.

Atoms have very small masses no usable scale can be
devised to weigh them.
It is convenient to have a special unit to describe a very large
number of atoms.
Chemists measure atoms and molecules in moles.
It is a unit which is used to describe an amount of
atoms, ions and molecules.

According to 14th conference of National Institute of Standards

and Technology (NIST), the definition of mole is given as:
Mole is the amount of substance of a system which contains as
many elementary entities as there are atoms in 0.012 kg of
carbon-12. Its symbol is mol.
Visualizing a mole as a pile of particles is
just one way to understand the concept.
Items

Unit

Number

Eggs

Dozen

12

Carbon

Mole

6.0221415 1023 particles

By definition, 1 mole of carbon-12 atoms has a mass of exactly

12 g and contains 6.022 1023 atoms. This mass of carbon-12
is its molar mass.

Avogadros constant
1 mole = 6.022 1023 entities.
The idea of such a number was first conceived by
Italian mathematical physicist Amedeo Avogadro. He
never determined this number. It was determined
later by French physicist Jean Perrin.
Avogadros constant NA = 6.022 1023/mol.

Atomic Mass Unit

The atomic mass unit (amu) or unified atomic mass
unit (u) is defined as a mass exactly equal to 1/12th the
mass of one carbon-12 atom.
1 amu = 1.660539 1027 kg
The atomic mass or atomic weight of an atom is then
defined relative to this standard.
The standard is

12C.

Its mass is exactly equal to 12.00.

Relative masses or atoms and molecules are the number

of times each atom or molecule is heavier than 1/12th of
the mass of one 12C atom.

Molar Mass
Molar mass of a substance is the mass of 1 mole of that
substance.
Eg. Molar mass of water is 18 g/mol
Therefore, 18 g of water = 1 mole of water
36 g of water = 2 moles of water

n g of water = (number of moles 18)

Wt
No. of moles
Molar mass

Percent Composition
Using the chemical formula and molar mass of a
compound the composition by mass of each element
present in a compound can be calculated.

n molar mass of element

Composition of an element (%)
100
molar mass of compound
Example: Calculate the percent composition by mass of
each of the elements in phosphoric acid (H3PO4).
H3PO4 contains: 3 H, 4 O and 1 P. The molar mass is 97.99
g/mol.
3 1.00
H (%)

100 3.09
97.99
1 30.97
P (%)
100 31.61
97.99
4 16.00
O (%)
100 65.31
97.99

Concentration Units
The amount of solute present in a
given amount of solvent can be
calculated
and
expressed
in
following units:

Solute

Solvent

Weight percent
Volume percent
Mole fraction
Molarity
Molality

mass of solute
Wt (%)
100
Total mass of all components
volume of solute
Vol (%)
100
Total volume of all components

moles of A
Mole fraction
Total moles of all components
Molarity is the number of moles of solute in 1 L of
solvent

moles of solute
Molarity (M)
Volume in Litre
Molality is the number of moles of solute in 1 kg of
solvent

Molality (m)

moles of solute
mass of solvent in kg

Stoichiometry
This is a quantitative study of reactants and products in a
chemical reaction.
2 CO (g) + O2 (g) 2 CO2 (g)
A chemical reaction gives the relative number of atoms
(moles) that are consumed and produced.
All units must be converted to number of moles to make a
quantitative relationship.
Because number of moles is proportional to number of
atoms, in this case we say 2 moles of CO react with 1 mole
of O2 to form 2 moles of CO2.
Therefore, 1 mole of O2 is stoichiometrically equivalent
to 2 moles of CO2.

Example
If 10.7 g of CO reacts to form CO2, calculate the amount in
grams of CO2 formed.
2 CO (g) + O2 (g) 2 CO2 (g)
First convert grams of CO to moles of CO. Ans: 0.382 mol.
Look at the stoichiometric ratio between CO and CO2.
Ans: 2 moles of CO to 2 moles of CO2.
Therefore the stoichiometric ratio is 2/2 = 1.
This tells us that 0.382 mol of CO will give 0.382 mol of
CO2.
Now calculate the weight of CO2 from the moles of CO2 and
molar mass of CO2. The molar mass of CO2 is 44.01 g/mol.
Ans: 0.382 44.01 = 16.8 g.