Unit

Objectives
1
Solutions
After studying this Unit, you will be
able to
· describe the formation of different Almost all processes in body occur in some kind of liquid solutions.
types of solutions;
· express concentration of solution
in different units; In normal life we rarely come across pure substances.
· state and explain Henry’s law and Most of these are mixtures containing two or more pure
Raoult’s law; substances. Their utility or importance in life depends
· distinguish between ideal and on their composition. For example, the properties of
non-ideal solutions; brass (mixture of copper and zinc) are quite different
· explain deviations of real solutions from those of German silver (mixture of copper, zinc
from Raoult’s law; and nickel) or bronze (mixture of copper and tin);
· describe colligative properties of 1 part per million (ppm) of fluoride ions in water
solutions and correlate these with prevents tooth decay, while 1.5 ppm causes the tooth
molar masses of the solutes; to become mottled and high concentrations of fluoride
· explain abnormal colligative ions can be poisonous (for example, sodium fluoride is
properties exhibited by some used in rat poison); intravenous injections are always
solutes in solutions. dissolved in water containing salts at particular ionic
concentrations that match with blood plasma
concentrations and so on.
In this Unit, we will consider mostly liquid
solutions and their formation. This will be followed by
studying the properties of the solutions, like vapour
pressure and colligative properties. We will begin with
types of solutions and then various alternatives in
which concentrations of a solute can be expressed in
liquid solution.

1.1 Types of Solutions are homogeneous mixtures of two or more than two
Solutions components. By homogenous mixture we mean that its composition
and properties are uniform throughout the mixture. Generally, the
component that is present in the largest quantity is known as solvent.
Solvent determines the physical state in which solution exists. One or
more components present in the solution other than solvent are called
solutes. In this Unit we shall consider only binary solutions (i.e.,

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 consisting of two components). Here each component may be
solid, liquid or in gaseous state and are summarised in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1: Types of Solutions

Type of Solution Solute Solvent Common Examples

Gaseous Solutions Gas Gas Mixture of oxygen and nitrogen gases

Liquid Gas Chloroform mixed with nitrogen gas
Solid Gas Camphor in nitrogen gas

Liquid Solutions Gas Liquid Oxygen dissolved in water

Liquid Liquid Ethanol dissolved in water
Solid Liquid Glucose dissolved in water

Solid Solutions Gas Solid Solution of hydrogen in palladium

Liquid Solid Amalgam of mercury with sodium
Solid Solid Copper dissolved in gold

Composition of a solution can be described by expressing its

1.2 Expressing concentration. The latter can be expressed either qualitatively
Concentration or quantitatively. For example, qualitatively we can say that the
of Solutions solution is dilute (i.e., relatively very small quantity of solute)
or it is concentrated (i.e., relatively very large quantity of
solute). But in real life these kinds of description can add to
lot of confusion and thus the need for a quantitative description
of the solution.
There are several ways by which we can describe the concentration
of the solution quantitatively.
(i) Mass percentage (w/w): The mass percentage of a component of a
solution is defined as:
Mass % of a component
Mass of the component in the solution
=  100 (1.1)
Total mass of the solution
For example, if a solution is described by 10% glucose in water by
mass, it means that 10 g of glucose is dissolved in 90 g of water
resulting in a 100 g solution. Concentration described by mass
percentage is commonly used in industrial chemical applications.
For example, commercial bleaching solution contains 3.62 mass
percentage of sodium hypochlorite in water.
(ii) Volume percentage (V/V): The volume percentage is defined as:
Volume of the component
Volume % of a component =  100
Total volume of solution
(1.2)
Chemistry 2

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 For example, 10% ethanol solution in water means that 10 mL
of ethanol is dissolved in water such that the total volume of
the solution is 100 mL. Solutions containing liquids are commonly
expressed in this unit. For example, a 35% (v/v) solution of
ethylene glycol, an antifreeze, is used in cars for cooling the
engine. At this concentration the antifreeze lowers the freezing
point of water to 255.4K (–17.6°C).
(iii) Mass by volume percentage (w/V): Another unit which is
commonly used in medicine and pharmacy is mass by
volume percentage. It is the mass of solute dissolved in
100 mL of the solution.
(iv) Parts per million: When a solute is present in trace quantities, it
is convenient to express concentration in parts per million (ppm)
and is defined as:
Parts per million =
Number of parts of the component
×106 (1.3)
Total number of parts of all components of the solution
As in the case of percentage, concentration in parts per million can
also be expressed as mass to mass, volume to volume and mass to
volume. A litre of sea water (which weighs 1030 g) contains about
–3
6 × 10 g of dissolved oxygen (O2). Such a small concentration is
6
also expressed as 5.8 g per 10 g (5.8 ppm) of sea water. The
concentration of pollutants in water or atmosphere is often expressed
–1
in terms of mg mL or ppm.
(v) Mole fraction: Commonly used symbol for mole fraction is x and
subscript used on the right hand side of x denotes the component.
It is defined as:
Mole fraction of a component =
Number of moles of the component
(1.4)
Total number of moles of all the components
For example, in a binary mixture, if the number of moles of A and B are
nA and nB respectively, the mole fraction of A will be
nA
xA = (1.5)
n A  nB
For a solution containing i number of components, we have:
ni ni
xi = = (1.6)
n 1  n 2  .......  n i  ni
It can be shown that in a given solution sum of all the mole
fractions is unity, i.e.
x1 + x2 + .................. + xi = 1 (1.7)
Mole fraction unit is very useful in relating some physical properties
of solutions, say vapour pressure with the concentration of the
solution and quite useful in describing the calculations involving
gas mixtures.

3 Solutions

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 Example 1.1 Calculate the mole fraction of ethylene glycol (C2H6O2) in a solution
containing 20% of C2H6O2 by mass.

Solution Assume that we have 100 g of solution (one can start with any amount of
solution because the results obtained will be the same). Solution will
contain 20 g of ethylene glycol and 80 g of water.
Molar mass of C2H6O2 = 12 × 2 + 1 × 6 + 16 × 2 = 62 g mol–1.
20 g
Moles of C2H6O2 = = 0.322 mol
62 g mol 1

80 g
Moles of water = = 4.444 mol
18 g mol -1

moles of C2 H6 O2
x glycol 
moles of C2 H6 O2  moles of H2O

0.322 mol
 = 0.068
0.322 mol  4.444 mol
4.444 mol
Similarly, x water   0.932
0.322 mol  4.444 mol
Mole fraction of water can also be calculated as: 1 – 0.068 = 0.932

(vi) Molarity: Molarity (M) is defined as number of moles of solute dissolved

in one litre (or one cubic decimetre) of solution,
Moles of solute
Molarity  (1.8)
Volume of solution in litre
For example, 0.25 mol L–1 (or 0.25 M) solution of NaOH means that
0.25 mol of NaOH has been dissolved in one litre (or one cubic decimetre).

Example 1.2 Calculate the molarity of a solution containing 5 g of NaOH in 450 mL

solution.

Solution Moles of NaOH = 5g

= 0.125 mol
40 g mol-1
Volume of the solution in litres = 450 mL / 1000 mL L-1
Using equation (2.8),
0.125 mol × 1000 mL L–1
Molarity = = 0.278 M
450 mL
= 0.278 mol L–1
= 0.278 mol dm–3

Chemistry 4

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 (vii) Molality: Molality (m) is defined as the number of moles of the solute
per kilogram (kg) of the solvent and is expressed as:
Moles of solute
Molality (m) = (1.9)
Mass of solvent in kg
–1
For example, 1.00 mol kg (or 1.00 m) solution of KCl means that
1 mol (74.5 g) of KCl is dissolved in 1 kg of water.
Each method of expressing concentration of the solutions has its
own merits and demerits. Mass %, ppm, mole fraction and molality
are independent of temperature, whereas molarity is a function of
temperature. This is because volume depends on temperature
and the mass does not.

Calculate molality of 2.5 g of ethanoic acid (CH3COOH) in 75 g of benzene. Example 1.3

Molar mass of C2H4O2: 12 × 2 + 1 × 4 + 16 × 2 = 60 g mol–1 Solution
2.5 g
Moles of C2H4O2 = = 0.0417 mol
60 g mol −1
Mass of benzene in kg = 75 g/1000 g kg–1 = 75 × 10–3 kg
Moles of C2 H4O2 0.0417 mol × 1000 g kg −1
Molality of C2H4O2 = =
kg of benzene 75 g
= 0.556 mol kg–1

Intext Questions
1.1 Calculate the mass percentage of benzene (C6 H 6) and carbon
tetrachloride (CCl4 ) if 22 g of benzene is dissolved in 122 g of
carbon tetrachloride.
1.2 Calculate the mole fraction of benzene in solution containing 30%
by mass in carbon tetrachloride.
1.3 Calculate the molarity of each of the following solutions: (a) 30 g of
Co(NO3)2. 6H2O in 4.3 L of solution (b) 30 mL of 0.5 M H2SO4 diluted to
500 mL.
1.4 Calculate the mass of urea (NH2CONH2) required in making 2.5 kg of
0.25 molal aqueous solution.
1.5 Calculate (a) molality (b) molarity and (c) mole fraction of KI if the density
of 20% (mass/mass) aqueous KI is 1.202 g mL-1.

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