CONCENTRATION

In chemistry, CONCENTRATION is the measure of how much of a given substance there is mixed with
another substance. This can apply to any sort of chemical mixture, but most frequently the concept is limited to
homogeneous solutions, where it refers to the amount of solute in the solvent.

To CONCENTRATE a solution, one must add more solute (e.g. alcohol), or reduce the amount of solvent
(e.g. water). By contrast, to DILUTE a solution, one must add more solvent, or reduce the amount of solute.

Unless two substances are fully miscible there exists a concentration at which no further solute will dissolve in a
solution. At this point, the solution is said to be saturated. If additional solute is added to a saturated solution, it
will not dissolve (except in certain circumstances, when supersaturation may occur). Instead, PHASE
SEPARATION will occur, leading to either coexisting phases or a suspension. The point of saturation depends
on many variables such as ambient temperature and the precise chemical nature of the solvent and solute.

Analytical concentration includes all the forms of that substance in the solution.

QUALITATIVE DESCRIPTION

Often in informal, non-technical language, concentration is described in a qualitative way, through the use of
adjectives such as "dilute" for solutions of relatively low concentration and of others like "concentrated" for
solutions of relatively high concentration. Those terms relate the amount of a substance in a mixture to the
observable intensity of effects or properties caused by that substance. For example, a practical rule is that the
more concentrated a chromatic solution is, the more intensely colored it is (usually).

QUANTITATIVE NOTATION

For scientific or technical applications, a qualitative account of concentration is almost never sufficient; therefore
quantitative measures are needed to describe concentration. There are a number of different ways to quantitatively
express concentration; the most common are listed below. They are based on mass, volume, or both. Depending on
what they are based on it is not always trivial to convert one measure to the other, because knowledge of the density
might be needed to do so. At times this information may not be available, particularly if the temperature varies.

MASS VERSUS VOLUME

Units of concentration — particularly the most popular one, molarity — require knowledge of a substance's
volume, which unlike mass is variable depending on ambient temperature and pressure. In fact (partial) molar
volume can even be a function of concentration itself. This is why volumes are not necessarily completely
additive when two liquids are added and mixed. Volume-based measures for concentration are therefore not to
be recommended for non-dilute solutions or problems where relatively large differences in temperature are
encountered (e.g. for phase diagrams).

Unless otherwise stated, all the following measurements of volume are assumed to be at a standard state
temperature and pressure (for example 0 degrees Celsius at 1 atmosphere or 101.325 kPa). The measurement
of mass does not require such restrictions.

Mass can be determined at a precision of < 0.2 mg on a routine basis with an analytical balance and more
precise instruments exist. Both solids and liquids are easily quantified by weighing.

The volume of a liquid is usually determined by calibrated glassware such as burettes and volumetric flasks. For
very small volumes precision syringes are available. The use of graduated beakers and cylinders is not
recommended as their indication of volume is mostly for decorative rather than quantitative purposes. The
volume of solids, particularly of powders, is often difficult to measure, which is why mass is the more usual
measure. For gases the opposite is true: the volume of a gas can be measured in a gas burette, if care is taken to
control the pressure, but the mass is not easy to measure due to buoyancy effects.

MOLE FRACTION

The mole fraction Χ, (also called molar fraction) denotes the number of moles of solute as a proportion of the
total number of moles in a solution. For instance: 1 mole of solute dissolved in 9 moles of solvent has a mole
fraction of 1/10 or 0.1. Mole fractions are dimensionless quantities. (The mole percentage or molar percentage,
denoted "mol %" and equal to 100% times the mole fraction, is sometimes quoted instead of the mole fraction.)
This measure is used very frequently in the construction of phase diagrams. It has a number of advantages:

)the measure is not temperature dependent (such as molarity) and does not require knowledge of the densities of
the phase(s) involved

)a mixture of known mole fraction can be prepared by weighing off the appropriate masses of the constituents

)the measure is symmetrical: in the mole fractions Χ=0.1 and Χ=0.9, the roles of 'solvent' and 'solute' are
reversed.

As both mole fractions and molality are only based on the masses of the components it is easy to convert
between these measures. This is not true for molarity, which requires knowledge of the density.

MASS PERCENTAGE(FRACTION)
Mass percentage denotes the mass of a substance in a mixture as a percentage of the mass of the entire mixture. (Mass
fraction w can be used instead of mass percentage by dividing mass percentage to 100.) Commercial concentrated
aqueous reagents such as acids and bases are often labeled in concentrations of weight percentage with the specific
gravity also listed. In older texts and references this is sometimes referred to as weight-weight percentage (abbreviated
as w/w% or wt%). In water pollution chemistry, a common term of measuring total mass percentage of dissolved solids
in an aqueous medium is total dissolved solids.

MASS-VOLUME PERCENTAGE

Mass-volume percentage, (sometimes referred to as weight-volume percentage or percent weight per volume and often
abbreviated as % m/v or % w/v) describes the mass of the solute in g per 100 mL of the resulting solution. Mass-volume
percentage is often used for solutions made from a solid solute dissolved in a liquid. For example, a 40% w/v sugar
solution contains 40 g of sugar per 100 mL of resulting solution

VOLUME-VOLUME PERCENTAGE

Volume-volume percentage (sometimes referred to as percent volume per volume and abbreviated as % v/v) describes
the volume of the solute in mL per 100 mL of the resulting solution. This is most useful when a liquid - liquid solution is
being prepared, although it is used for mixtures of gases as well. For example, a 40% v/v ethanol solution contains 40 mL
ethanol per 100 mL total volume. The percentages are only additive in the case of mixtures of ideal gases.

NORMALITY

Normality highlights the chemical nature of salts: in solution, salts dissociate into distinct reactive species (ions
such as H+, Fe3+, or Cl-). Normality accounts for any discrepancy between the concentrations of the various
ionic species in a solution. For example, in a salt such as MgCl2, there are two moles of Cl- for every mole of
Mg2+, so the concentration of Cl- is said to be 2 N (read: "two normal"). Further examples are given below. It
may also refer to the concentration of a solute in any solution. The normality of a solution is the number of
gram equivalent weight of a solute per liter of its solution. The definition of normality depends on the exact
reaction intended.

For example, hydrochloric acid (HCl) is a monoprotic acid and thus has 1 mol = 1 gram equivalent. One liter of
1 M aqueous solution of HCl acid contains 36.5 grams HCl. It is called 1 N (one normal) solution of HCl. It is
given by the following formula:

Normality,|(N=gram equivalents/liters solution)

In contrast, for sulfuric acid, which is a diprotic acid, 2 N is usually 1 M, but may be defined as 2 M if pH < 2,
where the once-deprotonated species, hydrogen sulfate, does not deprotonate.

DEFINITION

A NORMAL is one gram equivalent of a solute per liter of solution. The definition of a gram equivalent varies
depending on the type of chemical reaction that is discussed in integers — it can refer to equations, bases, redox
species, and ions that will precipitate and also isotopes.

USAGE
It is critical to note that normality measures a single ion which takes part in an overall solute. For example, one
could determine the normality of hydroxide or sodium in an aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide, but the
normality of sodium hydroxide itself has no meaning. Nevertheless it is often used to describe solutions of acids
or bases, in those cases it is implied that the normality refers to the H+ or OH− ion. For example, 2 Normal
sulfuric acid (H2SO4), means that the normality of H+ ions is 2, or that the molarity of the sulfuric acid is 1.
Similarly for 1 molar H3PO4 the normality is 3 as it contains three moles of H+ ions for every mole of PO4 3-

SPECIFIC CASES

As ions in solution can react through different pathways, there are three common definitions for normality as a
measure of reactive species in solution:

)In acid-base chemistry, normality is used to express the concentration of protons or hydroxide ions in the
solution. Here, the normality differs from the molarity by an integer value - each solute can produce n
equivalents of reactive species when dissolved. For example: 1 M aqueous Ca(OH)2 is 2 N (normal) in
hydroxide.

)In redox reactions, normality measures the quantity of oxidizing or reducing agent that can accept or furnish
one mole of electrons. Here, the normality scales from the molarity, most commonly, by a fractional value.
Calculating the normality of redox species in solution can be challenging.

)In precipitation reactions, normality measures the concentration of ions which will precipitate in a given
reaction. Here, the normality scales from the molarity again by an integer value.

PRACTICAL USES
The measure of normality is extremely useful for titrations — given two species that are known to react with a
known ratio, one simply needs to scale the volumes of solutions with known normalities to get a complete
reaction with the following equation:

NaVa=NbVb

However, normality cannot reliably represent an unambiguous measure of the concentration of a solution. Since
the measure of normality depends on the reaction that the solute participates in, the same concentration of solute
can possess two different normalities for two different reactions. For example, Mg2+ is 2 N with respect to a Cl-
ion, but it is only 1 N with respect to an O2- ion.

Accordingly, normality is no longer used to represent the concentration of a solution as such. Instead, a solution
should be labeled according to its molarity, and it is then possible to calculate the normality for a particular
titration using the equation above. NIST has also stipulated that this unit is obsolete and recommends
discontinuing its use.

EQUIVALENTS

Expression of concentration in equivalents per liter (or more commonly, milliequivalents per liter) is based on
the same principle as normality. A normal solution is one equivalent per liter of solution (Eq/L). The use of
equivalents and milliequivalents as a means of expressing concentration is losing favor, but medical reporting of
serum concentrations in mEq/L still occurs.
FORMAL

The formal (F) is yet another measure of concentration similar to molarity. Formal concentrations are
sometimes used when solving chemical equilibrium problems. It is calculated based on the formula weights of
chemicals per liter of solution. The difference between formal and molar concentrations is that the formal
concentration indicates moles of the original chemical formula in solution, without regard for the species that
actually exist in solution. Molar concentration, on the other hand, is the concentration of species in solution.

For example: if one dissolves sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) in a liter of water, the compound dissociates into the
Na+ and CO3 2- ions. Some of the CO3 2- reacts with the water to form HCO3- and H2CO3. If the pH of the solution
is low, there is practically no Na2CO3 left in the solution. So, although we have added 1 mol of Na2CO3 to the
solution, it does not contain 1 M of that substance. (Rather, it contains a molarity based on the other constituents
of the solution.) However, it was once said that such solutions contain 1 F of Na2CO3.

MOLARITY

Molarity (in units of mol/L, molar, or M) or molar concentration denotes the number of moles of a given
substance per liter of solution. A capital letter M is used to abbreviate units of mol/L. For instance:

2.O moles of dissolved particles/4.0 liters of liquid=solution of 0.5 mol/L

The actual formula for molarity is:

Moles of solute/Liters of solution=Molarity of solution

Such a solution may be described as "0.50 molar." It must be emphasized a 0.5 molar solution contains 0.5
moles of solute in 1.0 liter of solution. This is not equivalent to 1.0 liter of solvent. A 0.5 mol/L solution will
contain either slightly more or slightly less than 1 liter of solvent because the process of dissolution causes
volume of liquid to increase or decrease.

Following the SI system of units, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the United States
authority on measurement, considers the term molarity and the unit symbol M to be obsolete, and suggests
instead the amount-of-substance concentration (c) with the units mol/m3 or other units used alongside the SI
such as mol/L. This recommendation has not been universally implemented in academia or chemistry research
yet.

Preparation of a solution of known molarity involves adding an accurately weighed amount of solute to a
volumetric flask, adding some solvent to dissolve it, then adding more solvent to fill to the volume mark.

When discussing molarity of minute concentrations, such as in pharmacological research, molarity is expressed
in units of millimolar (mmol/L, mM, 1 thousandth of a molar), micromolar (μmol/L, μM, 1 millionth of a
molar) or nanomolar (nmol/L, nM, 1 billionth of a molar).

Although molarity is by far the most commonly used measure of concentration, particularly for dilute aqueous
solutions, it does suffer from a number of disadvantages. Masses can be determined with great precision as
balances are often very precise. Determining volume is often not as precise. In addition, due to a thermal
expansion, molarity of a solution changes with temperature without adding or removing any mass. For non-
dilute solutions another problem is the molar volume of a substance is itself a function of concentration so
volume is not strictly additive.

MOLALITY

Moles of solute/Kilograms of solvent=Molality of solution

Molality (mol/kg, molal, or m) denotes the number of moles of solute per kilogram of solvent (not solution).
For instance: adding 1.0 mole of solute to 2.0 kilograms of solvent constitutes a solution with a molality of
0.50 mol/kg. Such a solution may be described as "0.50 molal". The term molal solution is used as a shorthand
for a "one molal solution", i.e. a solution which contains one mole of the solute per 1000 grams of the solvent.

Following the SI system of units, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the United States
authority on measurement, considers the unit symbol m to be obsolete, and suggests instead the term 'molality
of substance B' (mB) with units mol/kg or a related unit of the SI. This recommendation has not been universally
implemented in academia yet.

Note: molality is sometimes represented by the symbol (m), while molarity by the symbol (M). The two
symbols are not to be confused, and should not be used as symbols for units. The SI unit for molality is mol/kg.
(The unit m - not italicized - means meter.)

Like other mass-based measures, the determination of molality only requires a good scale, because masses of
both solvent and solute can be obtained by weighing, and molality is independent of physical conditions like
temperature and pressure, providing advantages over molarity.

In a dilute aqueous solution near room temperature and standard atmospheric pressure, molarity and molality
will be very similar in value. This is because 1 kg of water roughly corresponds to a volume of 1 L at these
conditions, and because the solution is dilute, the addition of the solute makes a negligible impact on the
volume of the solution.

However, in all other conditions, this is usually not the case.