What is a Mole?
The mole is the amount of substance which contains as many elementary entities as there are atoms in 0.012kg (12g) of Carbon-12 // A mole is the amount of pure substance containing the same number of chemical units as there are atoms in exactly 12 grams of carbon-12 (i.e. 6.023 X 10^23)
Key Points to Remember:
- The elementary entities must be specified: ie. Atoms, Molecules, Ions, Electrons, Other Particles or Specified Groups of Particles (eg: an Equation)
- The number of atoms in 12g of Carbon-12 has been found to be 6.023 x 10^23
- Thus, when we talk about 1 mol of an entity we therefore mean that we have 6.023 x 10^23 of that entity.
Examples:
Key Points to Remember:
- The elementary entities must be specified: ie. Atoms, Molecules, Ions, Electrons, Other Particles or Specified Groups of Particles (eg: an Equation)
- The number of atoms in 12g of Carbon-12 has been found to be 6.023 x 10^23
- Thus, when we talk about 1 mol of an entity we therefore mean that we have 6.023 x 10^23 of that entity.
Examples:
- 1 mol of sodium atoms means 6.023 x 10^23 sodium atoms
- 2 mol of sodium atoms means 12.046 x 10^23 sodium atoms etc.
- 1 mol of water molecules means 6.023 x 10^23 H2O
- 1 mol of water molecules also means 12.046 x 10^23 of H atoms (the formula for water has 2 hydrogen atoms - H2O)
- 1 mol of water molecules also means 6.023 x 10^23 of O atoms (the formula for water has 1 oxygen atom - H2O)
- 1 mol of water molecules also means 18.069 x 10^23 atoms (the formula for water has 3 atoms in total - H2O)