GENERAL CHEMISTRY| LUMANCAS

Chapter 6
Chemical Calculations: Formula Masses, Moles, and Chemical Equations
*The quantitative relationships between elements and compounds is discussed.
*The chemists counting unit, the mole, is introduced and its use in chemical calculations.

Formula Masses
Formula mass is the sum of the atomic masses of all the atoms represented in the
chemical formula of a substance.

Formula masses are obtained simply by adding the atomic masses of the constituent
elements, counting each atomic mass as many times as the symbol for the element occurs in
the chemical formula.
a.

A formula unit of SnF2 contains three atoms: one atom of Sn and two atoms of F. The
formula mass, the collective mass of these three atoms, is calculated as follows:

The conversion factors used in this calculation were derived from the atomic masses

b. The chemical formula for this compound contains parentheses. Improper interpretation of
parentheses is a common error made by students doing formula mass calculations. In the
formula Al(OH)3, the subscript 3 outside the parentheses affects both of the symbols
inside the parentheses. Thus we have

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Exercise

The Mole: A Counting Unit for Chemists

The quantity of material in a sample of a substance can be specified either in terms of
units of mass or in terms of units of amount.

Example,
Mass is specified in terms of units such as grams, kilograms, and pounds.
When performing chemical calculations after laboratory measurements have been made, it
is often useful and even necessary to think of the quantities of substances present in terms of
numbers of atoms or molecules instead of mass. When this is done, very large numbers are
always encountered.
In order to cope with this large-number problem, chemists have found it convenient to
use a special unit when counting atoms and molecules. The chemists counting unit is the mole.
A mole is 6.02 x 1023 objects.
To the chemist, one mole always means 6.02 x 1023 objects, just as one dozen always
means 12 objects. Two moles of objects is two times 6.02 x 1023 objects, and five moles of
objects is five times 6.02 x 1023 objects.
Avogadros number is the name given to the numerical value 6.02 x 1023. This designation
honors Amedeo Avogadro, an Italian physicist whose pioneering work on gases later proved valuable
in determining the number of particles present in given volumes of substances.
From the definition, two conversion factors can be derived:

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Example,

a. The objects of concern are molecules of aspirin. The given quantity is 0.23 mole of aspirin
molecules, and the desired quantity is the number of aspirin molecules.

b. This problem deals with atoms instead of molecules.

Exercise

The Mass of a Mole

The molar mass is the mass, in grams, of a substance that is numerically equal to the
substances formula mass.
For example, the formula mass (atomic mass) of the element sodium is 22.99 amu;
therefore, 1 mole of sodium weighs 22.99 g.
For the compound CO2, which has a formula mass of 44.01 amu, we can write the equality,

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From this statement (equality), two conversion factors can be written:

Example

Solution

Exercise
Carbon monoxide (CO) is an air pollutant that enters the atmosphere primarily in automobile
exhaust. Calculate the mass in grams of a 2.61-mole sample of this air pollutant.

Answer: 73.1 g CO

Another relationship
The numerical relationship between the amu unit and the grams unit is
6.02 x 1023 amu = 1.00 g.
Example,

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Chemical Formulas and the Mole Concept

The subscripts in a formula always carry a dual meaning: atoms at the microscopic level
and moles of atoms at the macroscopic level.
In microscopic level, the numerical subscripts in a chemical formula give the number of
atoms of the various elements present in 1 formula unit of the substance.

example
The formula N2O4, interpreted at the microscopic level, conveys the information that two
atoms of nitrogen and four atoms of oxygen are present in one molecule of N 2O4.
At a macroscopic level, a chemical formula indicates the number of moles of atoms of each
element present in one mole of a substance. The numerical subscripts in a chemical formula give
the number of moles of atoms of the various elements present in 1 mole of the substance.

Example
The formula N2O4, interpreted at the macroscopic level, conveys the information that 2
moles of nitrogen atoms and 4 moles of oxygen atoms are present in 1 mole of N 2O4 molecules.
When it is necessary to know the number of moles of a particular element within a
compound, the subscript of that elements symbol in the chemical formula becomes part of the
conversion factor used to convert from moles of compound to moles of element within the
compound. Using N2O4 as our chemical formula, we can write the following conversion factors:

Example,

Solution
One mole of C3H6O3 contains 3 moles of carbon atoms, 6 moles of hydrogen atoms, and 3 moles
of oxygen atoms. Consistent with this statement are the following conversion factors:

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Using the first conversion factor, the moles of carbon atoms present are calculated as follows:

Exercise

The Mole and Chemical Calculations

Example