In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: mass concentration, molar concentration, number concentration, and volume concentration.^[1] A concentration can be any kind of chemical mixture, but most frequently solutes and solvents in solutions. The molar (amount) concentration has variants such as normal concentration and osmotic concentration.

Qualitative description

Often in informal, non-technical language, concentration is described in a qualitative way, through the use of adjectives such as "dilute" for solutions of relatively low concentration and "concentrated" for solutions of relatively high concentration. To concentrate a solution, one must add more solute (for example, alcohol), or reduce the amount of solvent (for example, water). By contrast, to dilute a solution, one must add more solvent, or reduce the amount of solute. Unless two substances are fully miscible there exists a concentration at which no further solute will dissolve in a solution. At this point, the solution is said to be saturated. If additional solute is added to a saturated solution, it will not dissolve, except in certain circumstances, when supersaturation may occur. Instead, phase separation will occur, leading to coexisting phases, either completely separated or mixed as a suspension. The point of saturation depends on many variables such as ambient temperature and the precise chemical nature of the solvent and solute.

Concentrations are often called levels, reflecting the mental schema of levels on the vertical axis of a graph, which can be high or low (for example, "high serum levels of bilirubin" are concentrations of bilirubin in the blood serum that are greater than normal).

Quantitative notation

There are four quantities that describe concentration:

Mass concentration

The mass concentrationis defined as themassof a constituentdivided by the volume of the mixture:

The SI unit is kg/m3 (equal to g/L).

Molar concentration

The molar concentrationis defined as theamountof a constituent(in moles) divided by the volume of the mixture:

The SI unit is mol/m3. However, more commonly the unit mol/L (= mol/dm3) is used.

Number concentration

The number concentrationis defined as the number of entities of a constituentin a mixture divided by the volume of the mixture:

The SI unit is 1/m3.

Volume concentration

The volume concentration(not to be confused withvolume fraction^[2]) is defined as the volume of a constituentdivided by the volume of the mixture:

Being dimensionless, it is expressed as a number, e.g., 0.18 or 18%; its unit is 1.

There seems to be no standard notation in the English literature. The letterused here is normative in German literature (seeVolumenkonzentration).

Several other quantities can be used to describe the composition of a mixture. Note that these should not be called concentrations.^[1]

Normality

Normality is defined as the molar concentrationdivided by an equivalence factor. Since the definition of the equivalence factor depends on context (which reaction is being studied),IUPACandNISTdiscourage the use of normality.

Molality

(Not to be confused with Molarity)

The molality of a solutionis defined as theamountof a constituent(in moles) divided by the mass of the solvent(not the mass of the solution):

The SI unit for molality is mol/kg.

Mole fraction

The mole fractionis defined as theamountof a constituent(in moles) divided by the total amount of all constituents in a mixture:

The SI unit is mol/mol. However, the deprecated parts-per notation is often used to describe small mole fractions.

Mole ratio

The mole ratiois defined as theamountof a constituentdivided by the total amount of all other constituents in a mixture:

Ifis much smaller than, the mole ratio is almost identical to the mole fraction.

The SI unit is mol/mol. However, the deprecated parts-per notation is often used to describe small mole ratios.

Mass fraction

The mass fractionis the fraction of one substance with massto the mass of the total mixture, defined as:

The SI unit is kg/kg. However, the deprecated parts-per notation is often used to describe small mass fractions.

Mass ratio

The mass ratiois defined as the mass of a constituentdivided by the total mass of all other constituents in a mixture:

Ifis much smaller than, the mass ratio is almost identical to the mass fraction.

The SI unit is kg/kg. However, the deprecated parts-per notation is often used to describe small mass ratios.

Dependence on volume and temperature

Concentration depends on the variation of the volume of the solution with temperature due mainly to thermal expansion.


Concentration type	Symbol	Definition	SI unit	other unit(s)
mass concentration	$\rho _{i}$ or $\gamma _{i}$	$m_i/V$	kg/m³	g/100mL (= g/dL)
molar concentration	$c_{i}$	$n_i/V$	mol/m³	M (= mol/L)
number concentration	$C_{i}$	$N_i/V$	1/m³	1/cm³
volume concentration	$\phi _{i}$	$V_i/V$	m³/m³
Related quantities	Symbol	Definition	SI unit	other unit(s)
normality		$c_i/f_\mathrm{eq}$	mol/m³	N (= mol/L)
molality	$b_{i}$	$n_i/m_\mathrm{solvent}$	mol/kg
mole fraction	$x_{i}$	$n_i/n_\mathrm{tot}$	mol/mol	ppm, ppb, ppt
mole ratio	$r_{i}$	$n_i/(n_\mathrm{tot}-n_i)$	mol/mol	ppm, ppb, ppt
mass fraction	$w_{i}$	$m_i/m_\mathrm{tot}$	kg/kg	ppm, ppb, ppt
mass ratio	$\zeta _{i}$	$m_i/(m_\mathrm{tot}-m_i)$	kg/kg	ppm, ppb, ppt

References

[1]

Citation Linkdoi.orgIUPAC, Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book") (1997). Online corrected version: (2006–) "concentration". doi:10.1351/goldbook.C01222

Sep 26, 2019, 3:47 AM

[2]

Citation Linkdoi.orgIUPAC, Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book") (1997). Online corrected version: (2006–) "volume fraction". doi:10.1351/goldbook.V06643

Sep 26, 2019, 3:47 AM

[3]

Citation Linkgoldbook.iupac.orgconcentration

Sep 26, 2019, 3:47 AM

[4]

Citation Linkdoi.org10.1351/goldbook.C01222

Sep 26, 2019, 3:47 AM

[5]

Citation Linkgoldbook.iupac.orgvolume fraction

Sep 26, 2019, 3:47 AM

[6]

Citation Linkdoi.org10.1351/goldbook.V06643

Sep 26, 2019, 3:47 AM

[7]

Citation Linken.wikipedia.orgThe original version of this page is from Wikipedia, you can edit the page right here on Everipedia.Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Additional terms may apply.See everipedia.org/everipedia-termsfor further details.Images/media credited individually (click the icon for details).

Sep 26, 2019, 3:47 AM

Concentration

Concentration

Qualitative description

Quantitative notation

Mass concentration

Molar concentration

Number concentration

Volume concentration

Related quantities

Normality

Molality

Mole fraction

Mole ratio

Mass fraction

Mass ratio

Dependence on volume and temperature

Table of concentrations and related quantities

See also

References