Mole fraction

the measure is symmetric: in the mole fractions

x=0.1 and x=0.9, the roles of 'solvent' and 'solute'
are reversed.

In chemistry, the mole fraction or molar fraction ( xi

) is dened as the amount of a constituent (expressed in
moles), ni , divided by the total amount of all constituents
in a mixture, ntot :[1]

xi =

In a mixture of ideal gases, the mole fraction can

be expressed as the ratio of partial pressure to total
pressure of the mixture

ni
ntot

The sum of all the mole fractions is equal to 1:

2 Related quantities
N

i=1

ni = ntot ;

2.1 Mass fraction

xi = 1

i=1

The mass fraction wi can be calculated using the formula

The same concept expressed with a denominator of 100

is the mole percent or molar percentage or molar proportion (mol%).

wi = xi

The mole fraction is also called the amount fraction.[1]

It is identical to the number fraction, which is dened as
the number of molecules of a constituent Ni divided by
the total number of all molecules Ntot . The mole fraction
is sometimes denoted by the lowercase Greek letter
(chi) instead of a Roman x .[2][3] For mixtures of gases,
IUPAC recommends the letter y .[1]

Mi
M

where Mi is the molar mass of the component i and M

is the average molar mass of the mixture.
Replacing the expression of the molar mass:

The National Institute of Standards and Technology of

Mi
wi = xi
the United States prefers the term amount-of-substance
i xi Mi
fraction over mole fraction because it does not contain
the name of the unit mole.[4]
Whereas mole fraction is a ratio of moles to moles, molar 2.2 Mole percentage
concentration is a ratio of moles to volume.
Multiplying mole fraction by 100 gives the mole percentThe mole fraction is one way of expressing the compo- age, also referred as amount/amount percent (abbreviated
sition of a mixture with a dimensionless quantity; mass as n/n%).
fraction (percentage by weight, wt%) and volume fraction (percentage by volume, vol%) are others.

2.3 Mass concentration

Properties

The conversion to and from mass concentration i is given

by:

Mole fraction is used very frequently in the construction

of phase diagrams. It has a number of advantages:
i M

xi =
it is not temperature dependent (such as molar con Mi
centration) and does not require knowledge of the
where M is the average molar mass of the mixture.
densities of the phase(s) involved
a mixture of known mole fraction can be prepared
by weighing o the appropriate masses of the conMi
i = xi
stituents
M
1

2.4

Molar concentration

The conversion to molar concentration ci is given by:

ci =

xi
= xi c
M

or
xi
ci =
i xi Mi
where M is the average molar mass of the solution, c total
molar concentration and is the density of the solution .

2.5

Mass and molar mass

The mole fraction can be calculated from the masses mi

and molar masses Mi of the components:
mi

xi = Mimi
i Mi

Spatial variation and gradient

In a spatially non-uniform mixture, the mole fraction

gradient triggers the phenomenon of diusion.

References

[1] IUPAC, Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed.

(the Gold Book) (1997). Online corrected version:
(2006) "amount fraction".
[2] Zumdahl, Steven S. (2008). Chemistry (8th ed. ed.). Cengage Learning. p. 201. ISBN 0-547-12532-1.
[3] Rickard, James N. Spencer, George M. Bodner, Lyman
H. (2010). Chemistry : structure and dynamics. (5th ed.
ed.). Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. p. 357. ISBN 978-0-47058711-9.
[4] Thompson, A.; Taylor, B. N. The NIST Guide for the use
of the International System of Units. http://physics.nist.
gov/Pubs/SP811/sec08.html''. National Institute of Standards and Technology. Retrieved 5 July 2014.

REFERENCES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

5.1

Text

Mole fraction Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_fraction?oldid=664538624 Contributors: AxelBoldt, Andre Engels, Bernfarr,

Bdesham, SebastianHelm, Dtgm, Professor water, Joseaperez, Bearcat, Robbot, Kzhr, Icairns, Almit39, Vsmith, S.emmerson, Nuggetboy, BD2412, Rjwilmsi, The wub, Physchim62, ChrisChiasson, Bgwhite, RobotE, Alynna Kasmira, NHSavage, SmackBot, David
Shear, Tschwenn, DinosaursLoveExistence, RandomP, Astrochemist, Aldis90, RolfSander, JustAGal, Qwerty Binary, RainbowCrane,
El Belga, Janazex, SieBot, Mimihitam, ClueBot, Mild Bill Hiccup, Addbot, Glane23, Marsu~enwiki, Quercus solaris, Arbitrarily0,
Yobot, AnomieBOT, Elvim, Sylwia Ufnalska, , Mnmngb, Edderso, Xhmikos, NarSakSasLee, MagnInd, Docroberson,
John Cline, ClueBot NG, Lord Roem, MerlIwBot, Helpful Pixie Bot, Bobby123214233, Vanischenu, Blackbombchu, Mindreader24,
Vedant111marulkar and Anonymous: 45

5.2

Images

5.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0