Molar concentration

Molar concentration
Common symbols	c
SI unit	mol⋅m−3
Other units	mol/L
Derivations from other quantities	c = n/V
Dimension	${\displaystyle {\mathsf {L}}^{-3}{\mathsf {N}}}$

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⋅dm⁻³ in SI unit. A solution with a concentration of 1 mol/L is said to be 1 molar, commonly designated as 1 M. To avoid confusion with SI prefix mega, which has the same abbreviation, small caps ᴍ or italicized M are also used in journals and textbooks.^[1]

Definition[]

Molar concentration or molarity is most commonly expressed in units of moles of solute per litre of solution.^[2] For use in broader applications, it is defined as amount of substance of solute per unit volume of solution, or per unit volume available to the species, represented by lowercase ${\displaystyle c}$:^[3]

${\displaystyle c={\frac {n}{V}}={\frac {N}{N_{\text{A}}\,V}}={\frac {C}{N_{\text{A}}}}.}$

Here, ${\displaystyle n}$ is the amount of the solute in moles,^[4] ${\displaystyle N}$ is the number of constituent particles present in volume ${\displaystyle V}$ (in litres) of the solution, and ${\displaystyle N_{\text{A}}}$ is the Avogadro constant, since 2019 defined as exactly 6.02214076×10²³ mol⁻¹. The ratio ${\displaystyle {\frac {N}{V}}}$ is the number density ${\displaystyle C}$.

In thermodynamics the use of molar concentration is often not convenient because the volume of most solutions slightly depends on temperature due to thermal expansion. This problem is usually resolved by introducing temperature correction factors, or by using a temperature-independent measure of concentration such as molality.^[4]

The reciprocal quantity represents the dilution (volume) which can appear in Ostwald's law of dilution.

Formality or analytical concentration

If a molecular entity dissociates in solution, the concentration refers to the original chemical formula in solution, the molar concentration is sometimes called formal concentration or formality (F_A) or analytical concentration (c_A). For example, if a sodium carbonate solution (Na₂CO₃) has a formal concentration of c(Na₂CO₃) = 1 mol/L, the molar concentrations are c(Na⁺) = 2 mol/L and c(CO²⁻
₃) = 1 mol/L because the salt dissociates into these ions.^[5]

Units[]

In the International System of Units (SI) the coherent unit for molar concentration is mol/m³. However, this is inconvenient for most laboratory purposes and most chemical literature traditionally uses mol/dm³, which is the same as mol/L. This traditional unit is often denoted by the letter M, optionally preceded by an SI prefix as needed to denote sub-multiples, for example:

mol/m³ = 10⁻³ mol/dm³ = 10⁻³ mol/L = 10⁻³ M = 1 mmol/L = 1 mM.

The units millimolar and micromolar refer to mM and μM (10⁻³ mol/L and 10⁻⁶ mol/L), respectively.

Name	Abbreviation	Concentration
		(mol/L)	(mol/m3)
millimolar	mM	10−3	100
micromolar	μM	10−6	10−3
nanomolar	nM	10−9	10−6
picomolar	pM	10−12	10−9
femtomolar	fM	10−15	10−12
attomolar	aM	10−18	10−15
zeptomolar	zM	10−21	10−18
yoctomolar	yM[6]	10−24 (6 particles per 10 L)	10−21

Related quantities[]

Number concentration[]

The conversion to number concentration ${\displaystyle C_{i}}$ is given by

${\displaystyle C_{i}=c_{i}N_{\text{A}},}$

where ${\displaystyle N_{\text{A}}}$ is the Avogadro constant.

Mass concentration[]

The conversion to mass concentration ${\displaystyle \rho _{i}}$ is given by

${\displaystyle \rho _{i}=c_{i}M_{i},}$

where ${\displaystyle M_{i}}$ is the molar mass of constituent ${\displaystyle i}$.

Mole fraction[]

The conversion to mole fraction ${\displaystyle x_{i}}$ is given by

${\displaystyle x_{i}=c_{i}{\frac {\overline {M}}{\rho }},}$

where ${\displaystyle {\overline {M}}}$ is the average molar mass of the solution, ${\displaystyle \rho }$ is the density of the solution.

A simpler relation can be obtained by considering the total molar concentration, namely, the sum of molar concentrations of all the components of the mixture:

${\displaystyle x_{i}={\frac {c_{i}}{c}}={\frac {c_{i}}{\sum _{j}c_{j}}}.}$

Mass fraction[]

The conversion to mass fraction ${\displaystyle w_{i}}$ is given by

${\displaystyle w_{i}=c_{i}{\frac {M_{i}}{\rho }}.}$

Molality[]

For binary mixtures, the conversion to molality ${\displaystyle b_{2}}$ is

${\displaystyle b_{2}={\frac {c_{2}}{\rho -c_{1}M_{1}}},}$

where the solvent is substance 1, and the solute is substance 2.

For solutions with more than one solute, the conversion is

${\displaystyle b_{i}={\frac {c_{i}}{\rho -\sum _{j\neq i}c_{j}M_{j}}}.}$

Properties[]

Sum of molar concentrations – normalizing relations[]

The sum of molar concentrations gives the total molar concentration, namely the density of the mixture divided by the molar mass of the mixture or by another name the reciprocal of the molar volume of the mixture. In an ionic solution, ionic strength is proportional to the sum of the molar concentration of salts.

Sum of products of molar concentrations and partial molar volumes[]

The sum of products between these quantities equals one:

${\displaystyle \sum _{i}c_{i}{\overline {V_{i}}}=1.}$

Dependence on volume[]

The molar concentration depends on the variation of the volume of the solution due mainly to thermal expansion. On small intervals of temperature, the dependence is

${\displaystyle c_{i}={\frac {c_{i,T_{0}}}{1+\alpha \Delta T}},}$

where ${\displaystyle c_{i,T_{0}}}$ is the molar concentration at a reference temperature, ${\displaystyle \alpha }$ is the thermal expansion coefficient of the mixture.

Examples[]

See also[]

• Molality
• Orders of magnitude (molar concentration)

References[]

External links[]

• Molar Solution Concentration Calculator
• Experiment to determine the molar concentration of vinegar by titration