Describing Solution Composition

Because a mixture, unlike a chemical compound, has a variable composition, the relative amounts of substances in a solution must be specified. The qualitative terms dilute (relatively little solute present) and concentrated (relatively large amount of solute) are often used to describe solution content. However, we need to define solution composition more precisely to perform calculations. For example, in dealing with the stoichiometry of solution reactions in Chapter 4, we found it useful to describe solution composition in terms of molarity, or the number of moles of solute per liter of solution. 

Other ways of describing solution composition are also useful. Mass percent (sometimes called weight percent) is the percent solute by mass in the solution ... 

Another way of describing solution composition is the mole fraction (symbolized by the Greek letter chi, X), the ratio of the number of moles of a given component to the total number of moles of solution. For a two-component solution, where nA and nR represent the number of moles of the two components,... 

Still another way of describing solution composition is molality (symbolized by m), the number of moles of solute per kilogram of solvent ... 

The four most common ways to describe solution composition are mass percent, mole fraction, molarity, and molality. Define each of these solution composition terms. Why is molarity temperature-dependent, whereas the other three solution composition terms are temperature-independent ... 

Still another way of describing solution composition is molality (symbolized... 

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