Mr.

Arthurs guide to CONCENTRATION

Understanding Concentration.
Concentration is an interesting concept. In simple terms it means how much stuff
(solute) is dissolved in a liquid (solvent). So for example HCl(s) (Hydrogen Chloride) is
a solid salt.

When it is dissolved in water it becomes an aqueous Hydrogen Chloride(aq) also
known as Hydrochloric Acid.

So the concentration of the Hydrochloric acid will depend on two things;
1. The amount of salt dissolved.
2. The volume of water used to dissolve the salt.

So for example if Niamh dissolved 20 grams of HCl in 1 litre of water, then you could
say that the concentration of the acid is 20grams per litre of water. At another time if
Niamh dissolved the same 20grams of salt, but in 2 litres of water instead, then the
concentration will change because she is using more water. So the concentration of the
acid she made will now be 10grams per litre of water. So because she has used twice
the amount of water the concentration decreases by half since there is now only 10
grams in every litre.

Units of concentration.
Since concentration is the amount dissolved in a given volume of a liquid, it can have
many units. For example a unit of concentration could be 36.5 grams per litre of water.
Since we can use moles as an amount, we can then also say 2 moles per litre of water
as a concentration.

Since there are several ways to measure an amount of a substance and there are
several ways to measure the volume of liquid chemists being pedantic had to decide
on a standard units for concentration in other words standard amounts and standard
volumes of liquid to use.

In chemistry we use decimetres
3
(dm
3
) for volumes in concentration. One decimetre
3

is a 1000 centimetres
3
(1dm
3
= 1000cm
3
). Since 1000cm
3
is also equal to 1 litre, that
means that 1L is also the same volume as 1dm
3
(1L = 1dm
3
).

For amount we use moles. (PS. You should know what moles is and how to calculate
it). Moles is shortened to mol as a unit. So the standard units for concentration is
moles per decimetre
3
(mol/dm
3
).

In some instances, although you should avoid using it, concentration can be further
shortened to just MOLAR concentration (1M= 1 molar concentration).






Mr. Arthurs guide to CONCENTRATION

QUESTIONS.
1) Convert these volumes into decimetres.
a) 25cm
3

b) 1000cm
3


c) 100cm
3

d) 46.76cm
3



2) Mr. Arthur dissolved 2 moles of Hydrochloric acid in
1000cm
3
of water. What is the concentration of the acid
formed?





3) Jessica dissolved 0.4grams of Sodium Hydroxide in 100cm
3
of water.
a) How many moles of Sodium Hydroxide did she use?




b) what is the concentration of the solution made?