The Avogadro Constant
The Mole & the Avogadro Constant
- Chemical amounts are measured in moles
- The mole, symbol mol, is the SI unit of amount of substance
- One mole of a substance contains the same number of the stated particles, atoms, molecules, or ions as one mole of
- any other substance
- Previously the mole was defined as the number of atoms present in exactly 12.00 g of carbon-12
- However, this definition was based on mass and so was not an SI unit
- In 2018, the International union of Pure & Applied Chemistry decided to change the definition to
One mole contains exactly 6.022 140 76 × 1023 elementary entities
- This number is known as the Avogadro number and when used with units of mol-1 is called the Avogadro Constant
- For practical purposes a rounded version of the constant can be used in exams: 6.02 x 1023 mol-1
- The reason we have mol-1 as the unit is because this is the number of entities per mole of substance
- For example:
- One mole of sodium (Na) contains 6.02 x 1023 atoms of sodium
- One mole of hydrogen (H2) contains 6.02 x 1023 molecules of hydrogen
- One mole of sodium chloride (NaCl) contains 6.02 x 1023 formula units of sodium chloride
- One mole of sodium (Na) contains 6.02 x 1023 atoms of sodium
- For example:
- The mass of 1 mole of a substance is known as the molar mass
- For an element, it is the same as the relative atomic mass written in grams
- For a compound it is the same as the relative formula mass or relative molecular mass in grams
Calculating the Mass of One Atom or One Molecule
- To calculate the mass of one atom of an element we divide the molar mass of that element by the Avogadro constant:
- To calculate the mass of one molecule of a compound we divide the molar mass of that compound by the Avogadro constant
Worked example
What is the mass of?
- An aluminium atom
- An ethane, C2H6, molecule
Answer 1
From the Periodic Table, we can find the relative atomic mass of the elements
The Ar of C = 12.0, Al = 27.0 and H = 1.0
Mass of 1 atom of Al
Answer 2
The molar mass of ethane is: (12.0 x 2) + (1.0 x 6) = 30.0 g mol-1
Mass of 1 molecule of C2H6