CHM2201 -LECTURE 2

METHODS OF PRESENTING
CONCENTRATION
By Godfrey Muhwezi

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1
 Methods of presenting Concentration
•Molarity/Formality
•%/w/v
•%v/v
•%w/w
•Molality
•Normality
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 Methods continued
• Volumes
• Mole fraction
• Parts per million (ppm).
• Parts per billion (ppb).
• Parts per a thousand (ppt)

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 Molarity

• This refers to the number of moles of a substance disoolved in

one litre of solution.
Moles of solute
• Molarity(M) =
Liter of solution
• It is the most commonly encountered unit of concentration.

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 Examples

1. 12.6 g of NaCl are dissolved in water making 344mL of

solution. Calculate the molar concentration
2. What volume of solution will contain 15 g of NaCl if the
solution concentration is 0.75 M?
3. What mass of NaOH will be required to make 2 litres of
0.05M NaOH solution?

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 Percent weight/volume (% w/v)

• This refers to the mass of a solute dissolved in water to make

100ml of solution.
• % w/v = (Mass of solute/volume of solution) x 100%
• To convert % w/v to Mol/litre = g% (w/v) x10/molecular mass
of substance.

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 Examples
• A solution of sodium carbonate was made by dissolving 30g of Na2CO3
in 150 ml of solution. Represent this concentration in % w/v .
• A container of NaOH is labelled as 0.05M. Represent this concentration in
terms of % w/v
• What is the concentration in %w/v of a solution containing 39.2 g of
potassium nitrate in 177 mL of solution?
• What volume of 1.85 %w/v solution is needed to provide 5.7 g of solute?
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 Percent volume by volume ( % V/V)
• This refers to the volume of solute dissolved in water to make 100mls of
solution.
• Commonly used with liquid reagents like acids and alkalis
• % V/V =

• Usually the %V/V unit is given with specific gravity (g/ml) which is a
measure of the density of the solution and helps to get concentration in M
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 Examples
1. What is the concentration in %v/v of a solution containing 3.2 L of
ethanol in 6.5 L of solution?
2. What is the percentage volume by volume of ethanol in the final solution
if when 85ml of ethanol is diluted to a volume of 250ml with water?
3. How many grams H3PO4 are contained in 100 mL if the concentration of
phosphoric acid is 24.8% (v/v)? specific gravity is 1.28g/ml
4. The concentration of HCl is 11.84M and its specific gravity is 1.18g/ml.
Represent this concentration in %V/V.
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 Percent weight by weight (% w/w)
• The mass percent is used to express the concentration of a
solution when the mass of a solute and the mass of a solution is
given
• %w/w refers to the mass of a solute dissolved in water to form 100g of
solution
% mass = mass solute (g) x 100
mass solution (g)
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 Examples
• In a solution, there is 111.0 mL (110.605 g) solvent and 5.24
mL (6.0508 g) solute present in a solution. Find the mass
percent(%w/w), volume percent(%v/v)and mass/volume
percent (%w/v)of the solute.
• What is the mass of water in a 2000 g solution of glucose that is
labeled 5.0% (m/m or w/w/)?

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 Molality
• This refers to the number of moles of solute per kg of solvent.
• Molality (m)
Moles of solute

Kilograms of solvent

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 Sample Questions
1. Calculate the molality of a solution in which 5.36 g of KCl is
dissolved in 56 mL of water. (Density of water is 1g/ml)
2. How much acetic acid, in mL, is needed to make a 3.0 m
solution containing 25.0 g of KCN?
3. Calculate the molality of a solution where 0.5 grams of
toluene (C7H8) is dissolved in 225 grams of Benzene
(C6H6). Calculate the moles of given solute
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 Molality questions continued
• Calculate the molality of 1 molar solution of NaOH given density of
solution is 1.04 gram/ml.

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 Normality (N)
• This refers to the number of equivalents of solute present in one
litre of solution.
• It is based on an alternate chemical unit of mass called the
equivalent weight. The normality of a solution is the
concentration expressed as the number of equivalent weights
(equivalents) of solute per liter of solution

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 Normality continued

• The equivalent weight may be equal to the formula weight

(molecular weight, mole weight) of the substance or equal to an
integral fraction of the formula weight.
• number of equivalents of solute= grams of solute/ equivalent
weight of solute

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 Normality continued
Equivalent weight can be defined in two ways;
1. The equivalent weight is the weight of a substance that will react with, combine
with, contain, replace, or in any other way be equivalent to 1 gram-atomic
weight of hydrogen.
2. In oxidation-reduction reactions the gram-equivalent weight is the weight of a
substance that loses or gains 1 mole of electrons.

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 Normality (N)

Equivalent of solute
N
Volume of solution in litre

Mass of solute  1000

N
Equivalent mass  volume (in ml)
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 Normality summarized
• For acid-base reactions: Normality is a measure of the protons (H+ ) or
hydroxides (OH- ) that react with one another. The equivalent weight is
the weight of an acid or base that produces one mole of H+ions or OH-
ions.
• For redox reactions: The equivalent weight is the mass of a substance
that accepts or donates one mole of electrons
• For precipitation reactions: It’s the weight of a substance that produces
one mole of precipitating agent eg 2-,OH, 2- etc.
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 Sample Normality Questions

1. Calculate the Normality of the following solutions

i) 0.3M sulphuric acid, ii) 0.5M Fe3+ions

iii) 0.2M Phosphoric acid, iv) 0.25M Calcium hydroxide

2. 20 ml of 10 N HCl are diluted with distilled water to form one litre of the
solution. What is the normality of the diluted solution
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 More Normality Questions
1. Calculate molarity of 0.6 N AlCl3 solution
2. An HC1 solution is standardized by titration of a pure sample. Calculate
the normality of the HC1 solution if 41.30 ml are required to titrate 0.2153 g
of .
3. Question Pg 33 Modern Analytical Chemistry by David Harvey.

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 Volumes
• This is used to represent Concentrations.
• Its based on the decomposition reaction of hydrogen peroxide
• (aq) → O(g) + (g)
• From this equation,22.4 volumes of oxygen are given by a 2M solution of
hydrogen peroxide

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 Questions on Volumes
• Calculate the molarity of represented as follows
i) 100 volumes
ii) 30 volumes

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 Parts per million (ppm)

• This refers to the mass of solute dissolved in water to make one million
mls of solution.
• ppm= Mass of solute x
• Volume of solution.
• Ppm is also the same as mg/litre

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 Parts per billion(ppb)
• This refers to the mass of solute dissolved in water to make one billion
mls of solution.
• Ppm= mass of solute x
• volume of solution
• ppb is the same as µg/litre

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 Parts per a thousand (ppt)
• This refers to the mass of a solute dissolved in water to make 100mls of
solution.
• Ppt = mass of solute x
volume of solvent
Ppt is the same as g/litre

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 Questions on ppm, ppt and ppb
1. An Olympic sized swimming pool contains 2,500,000 L of
water. If 1 tea spoon of salt (NaCl) is dissolved in the pool,
what is the concentration in ppm and ppb (1 tea spoon =6.75g
of NaCl).
• A 2.6 g sample of plant tissue was analyzed and found to
contain 3.6 μg zinc. What is the concentration of zinc in the
plant in ppm? In ppb?
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 Further calculations on ppm and ppt
• A 25.0-μL serum sample was analyzed for glucose content and found to contain 26.7 μg.
Calculate the concentration of glucose in μg/mL and in mg/dL

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 Mole fraction
• Mole fraction of x () = moles of X
• Total number of moles

• Note: The total sum of mole fractions is always equal to one.

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 Questions on mole fraction.
1. In a glass of iced tea, we have added 3 table spoonful's of sugar
(C12H22O11).The volume of the tea (water) is 325 mL. What is the mole
fraction of the sugar in the tea solution?(1 tbsp sugar ≈ 25 g)
2. Air is about 78% N2, 21% O2, and 0.90% Ar. What is the mole fraction
of each gas?

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