Compounds, Formulae, and Equations & Amount of Substance Notes
Compounds, Formulae, and Equations & Amount of Substance Notes
● The fact that we have to balance chemical equations comes from the law of
conservation of mass
● Visualising the atoms can help you to balance
● At a-level, fractions can be used as well as whole numbers, as this conveys the ratio of
moles needed
Ionic equations
● When aqueous, elements are in their separate ion forms
● As solids, liquids, and gases, they are compounds, as in these forms they are insoluble
● Ions that appear on both sides of the equation are spectator ions and so can be
removed, as they have not changed
● If an equation shows only the non-spectator ions (only the species or particles actually
involved in the reaction, and so have changed), it is called an ionic equation
★ Substances that exist in the aqueous form are soluble ionic compounds (e.g NaCl,
KNO3 ..etc), and strong acids and bases (e.g: HCl, H2SO4, NaOH ..etc)
★ Substances that don’t exist as aqueous ions are insoluble ionic compounds (e.g:
CaCO3), transition metal hydroxide precipitates, and covalent compounds such as CO2
The Mole
The mole- the amount of any substance that contains the same
number of particles as there are carbon atoms in 12g of carbon-12
●
We use moles because the masses for atoms are very very big
numbers, so using the mole makes calculations less
complicated as it scales the numbers up to much shorter, easier numbers
● Avogadro’s number (NA)- number of atoms in a mole (6.02 x 10^23)
● So the number we see on the periodic table are the mass of 6.02 x 10^23
atoms of each element
Amount of a substance
Empirical and molecular formula
Empirical formula- the simplest whole number ratio for atoms of each
element in a compound
Molecular formula- the actual number of atoms of each element in a
compound
● With empirical formula, until the ratio point, moles should be kept at least as long as 3sf
★ p= pressure in pascals (kPa= 1000 Pa, 1 atmosphere= 101 kPa, or in Nm^-2 (Newton
metres), with Nm^-2 = Pa)
★ v= volume in m^3 (a decimetre is 1/1000th of a cubic metre, and a centimetre is one
millionth of a cubic decimetre)
★ n= the number of moles
★ R= gas constant (8.314 Jk^-1 mol^-1)
★ T= temperature in kelvin (basically celsius plus 273)
An ideal gas:
● Has a random motion of particles
● Has completely elastic collisions between particles
● Has particles of a negligible size
● Has no intermolecular forces between particles
★ You can tell if a question is an ideal gas question if two or more of the factors in the gas
equation from one side are present
% Composition by mass
% by mass= (mass of element in 1 mole/ (Mr/Rfm)) x 100