Mole fraction

Last updated
mole fraction
Other names
molar fraction, amount fraction, amount-of-substance fraction
Common symbols
x
SI unit 1
Other units
mol/mol

In chemistry, the mole fraction or molar fraction, also called mole proportion or molar proportion, is a quantity defined as the ratio between the amount of a constituent substance, ni (expressed in unit of moles, symbol mol), and the total amount of all constituents in a mixture, ntot (also expressed in moles): [1]

Contents

It is denoted xi (lowercase Roman letter x ), sometimes χi (lowercase Greek letter chi). [2] [3] (For mixtures of gases, the letter y is recommended. [1] [4] )

It is a dimensionless quantity with dimension of and dimensionless unit of moles per mole (mol/mol or molmol-1) or simply 1; metric prefixes may also be used (e.g., nmol/mol for 10-9). [5] When expressed in percent, it is known as the mole percent or molar percentage (unit symbol %, sometimes "mol%", equivalent to cmol/mol for 10-2). The mole fraction is called amount fraction by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) [1] and amount-of-substance fraction by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). [6] This nomenclature is part of the International System of Quantities (ISQ), as standardized in ISO 80000-9, [4] which deprecates "mole fraction" based on the unacceptability of mixing information with units when expressing the values of quantities. [6]

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

Mole fraction is numerically identical to the number fraction, which is defined as the number of particles (molecules) of a constituent Ni divided by the total number of all molecules Ntot. Whereas mole fraction is a ratio of amounts to amounts (in units of moles per moles), molar concentration is a quotient of amount to volume (in units of moles per litre). Other ways of expressing the composition of a mixture as a dimensionless quantity are mass fraction and volume fraction are others.

Properties

Mole fraction is used very frequently in the construction of phase diagrams. It has a number of advantages:

Differential quotients can be formed at constant ratios like those above:

or

The ratios X, Y, and Z of mole fractions can be written for ternary and multicomponent systems:

These can be used for solving PDEs like:

or

This equality can be rearranged to have differential quotient of mole amounts or fractions on one side.

or

Mole amounts can be eliminated by forming ratios:

Thus the ratio of chemical potentials becomes:

Similarly the ratio for the multicomponents system becomes

Mass fraction

The mass fraction wi can be calculated using the formula

where Mi is the molar mass of the component i and is the average molar mass of the mixture.

Molar mixing ratio

The mixing of two pure components can be expressed introducing the amount or molar mixing ratio of them . Then the mole fractions of the components will be:

The amount ratio equals the ratio of mole fractions of components:

due to division of both numerator and denominator by the sum of molar amounts of components. This property has consequences for representations of phase diagrams using, for instance, ternary plots.

Mixing binary mixtures with a common component to form ternary mixtures

Mixing binary mixtures with a common component gives a ternary mixture with certain mixing ratios between the three components. These mixing ratios from the ternary and the corresponding mole fractions of the ternary mixture x1(123), x2(123), x3(123) can be expressed as a function of several mixing ratios involved, the mixing ratios between the components of the binary mixtures and the mixing ratio of the binary mixtures to form the ternary one.

Mole percentage

Multiplying mole fraction by 100 gives the mole percentage, also referred as amount/amount percent [abbreviated as (n/n)% or mol %].

Mass concentration

The conversion to and from mass concentration ρi is given by:

where is the average molar mass of the mixture.

Molar concentration

The conversion to molar concentration ci is given by:

where is the average molar mass of the solution, c is the total molar concentration and ρ is the density of the solution.

Mass and molar mass

The mole fraction can be calculated from the masses mi and molar masses Mi of the components:

Spatial variation and gradient

In a spatially non-uniform mixture, the mole fraction gradient triggers the phenomenon of diffusion.

Related Research Articles

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Molar concentration (also called molarity, amount concentration or substance concentration) is a measure of the concentration of a chemical species, in particular, of a solute in a solution, in terms of amount of substance per unit volume of solution. In chemistry, the most commonly used unit for molarity is the number of moles per liter, having the unit symbol mol/L or mol/dm3 in SI units. A solution with a concentration of 1 mol/L is said to be 1 molar, commonly designated as 1 M or 1 M. Molarity is often depicted with square brackets around the substance of interest; for example, the molarity of the hydrogen ion is depicted as [H+].

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In thermodynamics, a partial molar property is a quantity which describes the variation of an extensive property of a solution or mixture with changes in the molar composition of the mixture at constant temperature and pressure. It is the partial derivative of the extensive property with respect to the amount of the component of interest. Every extensive property of a mixture has a corresponding partial molar property.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diffusion</span> Transport of dissolved species from the highest to the lowest concentration region

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In thermodynamics, an apparent molar property of a solution component in a mixture or solution is a quantity defined with the purpose of isolating the contribution of each component to the non-ideality of the mixture. It shows the change in the corresponding solution property per mole of that component added, when all of that component is added to the solution. It is described as apparent because it appears to represent the molar property of that component in solution, provided that the properties of the other solution components are assumed to remain constant during the addition. However this assumption is often not justified, since the values of apparent molar properties of a component may be quite different from its molar properties in the pure state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enthalpy of fusion</span> Enthalpy change when a substance melts

In thermodynamics, the enthalpy of fusion of a substance, also known as (latent) heat of fusion, is the change in its enthalpy resulting from providing energy, typically heat, to a specific quantity of the substance to change its state from a solid to a liquid, at constant pressure.

References

  1. 1 2 3 IUPAC , Compendium of Chemical Terminology , 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book") (1997). Online corrected version: (2006) " amount fraction ". doi : 10.1351/goldbook.A00296
  2. Zumdahl, Steven S. (2008). Chemistry (8th ed.). Cengage Learning. p. 201. ISBN   978-0-547-12532-9.
  3. Rickard, James N.; Spencer, George M.; Bodner, Lyman H. (2010). Chemistry: Structure and Dynamics (5th ed.). Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. p. 357. ISBN   978-0-470-58711-9.
  4. 1 2 "ISO 80000-9:2019 Quantities and units — Part 9: Physical chemistry and molecular physics". ISO. 2013-08-20. Retrieved 2023-08-29.
  5. "SI Brochure". BIPM. Retrieved 2023-08-29.
  6. 1 2 Thompson, A.; Taylor, B. N. (2 July 2009). "The NIST Guide for the use of the International System of Units". National Institute of Standards and Technology. Retrieved 5 July 2014.