Molar concentration

Molarity redirects here. It is not to be confused with denoted by a capital letter M (pronounced molar), someMolality or Morality.
times preceded by an SI prex to denote sub-multiples,
For the comic strip, see Molarity (comic strip).
for example:
mol/m3 = 103 mol/dm3 = 103 mol/L = 103
Molar concentration, also called molarity, amount
M = 1 mmol/L = 1 mM.
concentration or substance concentration, is a measure of the concentration of a solute in a solution, or of
any chemical species, in terms of amount of substance in The words millimolar and micromolar refer to mM
3
6
a given volume. A commonly used unit for molar con- and M (10 mol/L and 10 mol/L), respectively.
centration used in chemistry is mol/L. A solution of concentration 1 mol/L is also denoted as 1 molar (1 M).

3 Related quantities

Denition

3.1 Number concentration

Molar concentration or molarity is most commonly ex- The conversion to number concentration Ci is given by:
pressed in units of moles of solute per litre of solution.
For use in broader applications, it is dened as amount
of solute per unit volume of solution, or per unit volume Ci = ci NA
available to the species, represented by lowercase c:[1]
where NA is the Avogadro constant, approximately
6.0221023 mol1 .
c=

n
N
C
=
=
.
V
NA V
NA

3.2 Mass concentration

Here, n is the amount of the solute in moles,[2] N is the

The conversion to mass concentration i is given by:
number of molecules present in the volume V (in litres),
the ratio N/V is the number concentration C, and NA is
the Avogadro constant, approximately 6.0221023 mol1 .
i = ci Mi
Or more simply: 1 molar = 1 M = 1 mole/litre.
In thermodynamics the use of molar concentration is where Mi is the molar mass of constituent i .
often not convenient, because the volume of most solutions slightly depends on temperature due to thermal
expansion. This problem is usually resolved by intro- 3.3 Mole fraction
ducing temperature correction factors, or by using a
temperature-independent measure of concentration such The conversion to mole fraction xi is given by:
as molality.[2]

The reciprocal quantity represents the dilution (volume)

M
i xi Mi
x
=
c

=
c

i
i
i
which can appear in Ostwalds law of dilution.

xj Mj
xi = ci

ci Mi
2 Units
where M is the average molar mass of the solution,
In the International System of Units (SI) the base unit for is the density of the solution and j is the index of other
molar concentration is mol/m3 . However, this is imprac- solutes.
tical for most laboratory purposes and most chemical lit- A simpler relation can be obtained by considering the toerature traditionally uses mol/dm3 , or mol dm3 , which tal molar concentration namely the sum of molar concenis the same as mol/L. These traditional units are often trations of all the components of the mixture.
1

6 EXAMPLES

xi =

3.4

ci
ci
=
c
ci

Mass fraction

ci =

ci,T0
(1 + T )

where ci,T0 is the molar concentration at a reference temperature, is the thermal expansion coecient of the
mixture.

The conversion to mass fraction wi is given by:

Mi
wi = ci

3.5

5 Spatial variation and diusion

Molar and mass concentration have dierent values in
space where diusion happens.

Molality

The conversion to molality (for binary mixtures) is:

b2 =

c2
c2 M2

where the solute is assigned the subscript 2.

For solutions with more than one solute, the conversion
is:

6 Examples
Example 1: Consider 11.6 g of NaCl dissolved in 100 g
of water. The nal mass concentration (NaCl) will be:
(NaCl) = 11.6 g / (11.6 g + 100 g) = 0.104
g/g = 10.4 %
The density of such a solution is 1.07 g/mL, thus its volume will be:

bi =

c
i
ci Mi

V = (11.6 g + 100 g) / (1.07 g/mL) = 104.3 mL

Properties

The molar concentration of NaCl in the solution is therefore:

4.1

Sum of molar concentrations normalizing relations

The sum of molar concentrations gives the total molar

concentration, namely the density of the mixture divided
by the molar mass of the mixture or by another name the
reciprocal of the molar volume of the mixture. In an ionic
solution, ionic strength is proportional to the sum of molar
concentration of salts.

4.2

c(NaCl) = (11.6 g / 58 g/mol) / 104.3 mL =

0.00192 mol/mL = 1.92 mol/L
Here, 58 g/mol is the molar mass of NaCl.
Example 2: Another typical task in chemistry is the
preparation of 100 mL (= 0.1 L) of a 2 mol/L solution
of NaCl in water. The mass of salt needed is:
m(NaCl) = 2 mol/L x 0.1 L x 58 g/mol = 11.6
g

Sum
of
products
molar
concentrations-partial molar volumes To create the solution, 11.6 g NaCl are placed in a

volumetric ask, dissolved in some water, then followed

The sum of products between these quantities equals one. by the addition of more water until the total volume
reaches 100 mL.

ci Vi = 1

4.3

Dependence on volume

Example 3: The density of water is approximately 1000

g/L and its molar mass is 18.02 g/mol (or 1/18.02=0.055
mol/g). Therefore, the molar concentration of water is:
c(H2 O) = 1000 g/L / (18.02 g/mol) = 55.5
mol/L

Molar concentration depends on the variation of the volume of the solution due mainly to thermal expansion. On Likewise, the concentration of solid hydrogen (molar
mass = 2.02 g/mol) is:
small intervals of temperature the dependence is :

3
c(H2 ) = 88 g/L / (2.02 g/mol) = 43.7 mol/L
The concentration of pure osmium tetroxide (molar mass
= 254.23 g/mol) is:
c(OsO4 ) = 5.1 kg/L / (254.23 g/mol) = 20.1
mol/L.
Example 4: A typical protein in bacteria, such as E. coli,
may have about 60 copies, and the volume of a bacterium
is about 1015 L. Thus, the number concentration C is:
C = 60 / (1015 L)= 61016 L1
The molar concentration is:
c = NCA = 61016 L1 / (61023 mol1 ) = 107
mol/L = 100 nmol/L

Reference ranges for blood tests, sorted by molar concentration.

Formal concentration

If the concentration refers to original chemical formula

in solution, the molar concentration is sometimes called
formal concentration. For example, if a sodium carbonate
solution has a formal concentration of c(Na2 CO3 ) = 1
mol/L, the molar concentrations are c(Na+ ) = 2 mol/L
and c(CO2
3) = 1 mol/L because the salt dissociates into these ions.

References

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

(the Gold Book) (1997). Online corrected version:
(2006) "amount concentration, c".
[2] Kaufman, Myron (2002). Principles of thermodynamics.
CRC Press. p. 213. ISBN 0-8247-0692-7.
[3] David Bradley. How low can you go? The Y to Y.

External links
Molar Solution Concentration Calculator
Experiment to determine the molar concentration of
vinegar by titration

10

10
10.1

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

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10.2

Images

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10.3

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