The chemical changes we observe always involve discrete numbers of atoms that

rearrange themselves into new configurations. These numbers are huge— far too large in
magnitude for us to count or even visualize, but they are still numbers, and we need to
have a way to deal with them. We also need a bridge between these numbers, which we
are unable to measure directly, with weights of substances, which we do measure and
observe. The mole concept provides this bridge, and is central to all of quantitative
chemistry.

Avogadro's number

Owing to their tiny size, atoms and molecules cannot be counted by direct observation.
There are, however, a number of indirect methods that enable us to estimate the number
of these particles in a sample of an element or compound. Once this has been done, we
know the number of formula units (to use the most general term for any combination of
atoms we wish to define) in any arbitrary weight of the substance. The number will of
course depend both on the formula of the substance and on the weight of the sample. But
if we consider a weight of substance that is the same as its formula (molecular) weight
expressed in grams, we have only one number to know: Avogadro's number, 6.022137 ×
1023, usually designated by NA.

Things to understand about Avogadro's number

• It is a number, just as is "dozen", and thus is dimensionless; you can think of

Avogadro's number as the "chemist's dozen".

• It is a huge number, far greater in magnitude than we can visualize; see here for some
interesting comparisons with other huge numbers.

• Its practical use is limited to counting tiny things like atoms, molecules, "formula
units", electrons, or photons.

• Its value can be known only to the precision that the number of atoms in a measurable
weight of a substance can be estimated. Because large numbers of atoms cannot be
counted directly, a variety of ingenious indirect measurements have been made involving
such things as brownian motion and X-ray scattering.

Moles and their uses

The mole (abbreviated mol) is the the SI measure of quantity of a "chemical entity",
which can be an atom, molecule, formula unit, electron or photon. One mol of anything is
just Avogadro's number of that something. Or, if you think like a lawyer, you might
prefer the official SI definition:
The mole is the amount of substance of a system which contains as many elementary
entities as there are atoms in 0.012 kilogram of carbon 12

Avogadro's number NA = 6.02 × 1023, like any pure number, is dimensionless. However, it
also defines the mole, so we can also express NA as 6.02 × 1023 mol–1. This construction
emphasizes the role of Avogadro's number as a conversion factor between number of
moles and number of entities.

Molar mass

The atomic-, molecular-, or formula weight of a substance is the ratio of its mass to 1/12
the mass of a C12 atom, and being a ratio, is dimensionless. But at the same time, this
weight is also the mass of one mole (NA) of these entities, so we frequently emphasize
this by stating it explicitly as so many grams (or kilograms) per mole: g mol–1.

Don't let this confuse you; it is very important to always bear in mind that the mole is a
number and not a weight. But a mole of any specific substance corresponds to a certain
weight of that substance.

Molar volume

This is the volume occupied by one mole of a pure substance. Molar volume depends on
the density of a substance and, like density, varies with temperature owing to thermal
expansion, and also with the pressure. For solids and liquids, these variables ordinarily
have little practical effect, so the values quoted for 1 atm pressure and 25°C are generally
useful over a fairly wide range of conditions. This is definitely not the case with gases,
whose molar volumes must be calculated for a specific temperature and pressure. The
molar volume of a metallic element allows one to estimate the size of the atom. The idea
is to mentally divide a piece of the metal into as many little cubic boxes as there are
atoms, and then calculate the length of each box. Assuming that an atom sits in the center
of each box and that each atom is in direct contact with its six neighbors (two along each
dimension), this gives the diameter of the atom. The manner in which atoms pack
together in actual metallic crystals is usually more complicated than this and it varies
from metal to metal, so this calculation only provides an approximate value.

Molality/Molarity - The difference

Molality - number of moles of solute dissolved in one kilogram of solvent. Molality is

different from molarity because molality is about concentration in kilograms of solvent
and molarity is about concentration in dm3 (liters) of solvent. Molality is represented by
a small 'm', whereas molarity is represented by an upper case 'M'.

Calculate Molality

Molality and Solvents

Water as a solvent: Since water has a specific gravity of 1 (one dm3 = 1kg) , a molal
concentration of 1m can be made by adding water to a volumetric flask up to the one liter
line and then add the solute.

Other solvents are usually lighter than water and must therefore be weighed before
adding the solute.

To make a one molal aqueous solution of potassium chloride, measure out one
kilogram of water and add one mole of KCl (74.55g/mole) to it.

Chemical formula
A chemical formula or molecular formula is a way of expressing information about the
atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound.

The chemical formula identifies each constituent element by its chemical symbol and
indicates the number of atoms of each element found in each discrete molecule of that
compound. If a molecule contains more than one atom of a particular element, this
quantity is indicated using a subscript after the chemical symbol (although 18th-century
books often used superscripts) and also can be combined by more chemical elements. For
example, methane, a small molecule consisting of one carbon atom and four hydrogen
atoms, has the chemical formula CH4. The sugar molecule glucose has six carbon atoms,
twelve hydrogen atoms and six oxygen atoms, so its chemical formula is C6H12O6.

Chemical formulas may be used in chemical equations to describe chemical reactions.

For ionic compounds and other non-molecular substances an empirical formula may be
used, in which the subscripts indicate the ratio of the elements.

The 19th-century Swedish chemist Jöns Jakob Berzelius worked out this system for
writing chemical formulas.

Molecular geometry and structural formulas

The connectivity of a molecule often has a strong influence on its physical and chemical
properties and behaviour. Two molecules composed of the same numbers of the same
types of atoms (i.e. a pair of isomers) might have completely different chemical and/or
physical properties if the atoms are connected differently or in different positions. In such
cases, a structural formula can be useful, as it illustrates which atoms are bonded to
which other ones. From the connectivity, it is often possible to deduce the approximate
shape of the molecule.

A chemical formula supplies information about the types and spatial arrangement of
bonds in the chemical, though it does not necessarily specify the exact isomer. For
example ethane consists of two carbon atoms single-bonded to each other, with each
carbon atom having three hydrogen atoms bonded to it. Its chemical formula can be
rendered as CH3CH3. In ethylene there is a double bond between the carbon atoms (and
thus each carbon only has two hydrogens), therefore the chemical formula may be
written: CH2CH2, and the fact that there is a double bond between the carbons is implicit
because carbon has a valence of four. However, a more explicit method is to write
H2C=CH2 or less commonly H2C::CH2. The two lines (or two pairs of dots) indicate that
a double bond connects the atoms on either side of them.

A triple bond may be expressed with three lines or pairs of dots, and if there may be
ambiguity, a single line or pair of dots may be used to indicate a single bond.

Molecules with multiple functional groups that are the same may be expressed by
enclosing the repeated group in round brackets. For example isobutane may be written
(CH3)3CH. This semi-structural formula implies a different connectivity from other
molecules that can be formed using the same atoms in the same proportions (isomers).
The formula (CH3)3CH implies a central carbon atom attached to one hydrogen atom and
three CH3 groups. The same number of atoms of each element (10 hydrogens and 4
carbons, or C4H10) may be used to make a straight chain molecule, butane:
CH3CH2CH2CH3.

The alkene but-2-ene has two isomers which the chemical formula CH3CH=CHCH3 does
not identify. The relative position of the two methyl groups must be indicated by
additional notation denoting whether the methyl groups are on the same side of the
double bond (cis or Z) or on the opposite sides from each other (trans or E).

Polymers

For polymers, parentheses are placed around the repeating unit. For example, a
hydrocarbon molecule that is described as CH3(CH2)50CH3, is a molecule with fifty
repeating units. If the number of repeating units is unknown or variable, the letter n may
be used to indicate this formula: CH3(CH2)nCH3

Ions

For ions, the charge on a particular atom may be denoted with a right-hand superscript.
For example Na+, or Cu2+. The total charge on a charged molecule or a polyatomic ion
may also be shown in this way. For example: hydronium, H3O+ or sulfate, SO42−.

For more complex ions, brackets [ ] are often used to enclose the ionic formula, as in
[B12H12]2−, which is found in compounds such as Cs2[B12H12]. Parentheses ( ) can be
nested inside brackets to indicate a repeating unit, as in [Co(NH3)6]3+. Here (NH3)6
indicates that the ion contains six NH3 groups, and [ ] encloses the entire formula of the
ion with charge +3.

Isotopes

Although isotopes are more relevant to nuclear chemistry or stable isotope chemistry than
to conventional chemistry, different isotopes may be indicated with a left-hand
superscript in a chemical formula. For example, the phosphate ion containing radioactive
phosphorus-32 is 32PO43-. Also a study involving stable isotope ratios might include the
molecule 18O16O.

A left-hand subscript is sometimes used redundantly to indicate the atomic number. For
example, 8O2 for dioxygen, and 168O2 for the most abundant isotopic species of dioxygen.
This is convenient when writing equations for nuclear reactions, in order to show the
balance of charge more clearly.

Empirical formulas

In chemistry, the empirical formula of a chemical is a simple expression of the relative

number of each type of atom or ratio of the elements in the compound. Empirical
formulas are the standard for ionic compounds, such as CaCl2, and for macromolecules,
such as SiO2. An empirical formula makes no reference to isomerism, structure, or
absolute number of atoms. The term empirical refers to the process of elemental
analysis, a technique of analytical chemistry used to determine the relative percent
composition of a pure chemical substance by element.

For example hexane has a molecular formula of C6H14, or structurally

CH3CH2CH2CH2CH2CH3, implying that it has a chain structure of 6 carbon atoms, and 14
hydrogen atoms. However, the empirical formula for hexane is C3H7. Likewise the
empirical formula for hydrogen peroxide, H2O2, is simply HO expressing the 1:1 ratio of
component elements. Formaldehyde and acetic acid have the same empirical formula,
CH2O. This is the actual chemical formula for formaldehyde, but acetic acid has double
the number of atoms.

Trapped atoms

The @ symbol ("at") indicates an atom or molecule trapped inside a cage but not
chemically bound to it. This notation became popular in the 1990s with the discovery of
fullerene cages, which can trap atoms such as La to form La@C60 or La@C82 for
example. A non-fullerene example is [As@Ni12As20]3-, an ion in which one As atom is
trapped in a cage formed by the other 32 atoms.

Non-stoichiometric formulas

Chemical formulas most often use integers for each element. However, there is a whole
class of compounds, called non-stoichiometric compounds, that cannot be represented by
small integers. Such a formula might be written using decimal fractions, as in Fe0.95O, or
it might include a variable part represented by a letter, as in Fe1–xO, where x is normally
much less than 1.
General forms for organic compounds

Chemical formula used for a series of compounds that differ from each other by a
constant unit is called general formula. Such a series is called the homologous series,
while its members are called homologs.

Hill System

The Hill system is a system of writing chemical formulas such that the number of
carbon atoms in a molecule is indicated first, the number of hydrogen atoms next, and
then the number of all other chemical elements subsequently, in alphabetical order. When
the formula contains no carbon, all the elements, including hydrogen, are listed
alphabetically. This deterministic system enables straightforward sorting and searching of
compounds.