Diluting Solutions

Chemical products come in different forms, but the most convenient way to get these products around is by their most concentrated form. These diluting solutions can tell us the amount of water that is used and can tell us what the concentrated form was before water is added.

Please note that you must know what solvent and solute is. If you do not know those terms then you are in trouble. You can learn them easily, yes, but know that teachers and I would be very disappointed.

Things to keep in mind:

• the moles of the solute is always constant
• Moles Solute before = Moles Solute after
• the "before" is the concentrated form and the "after" is when water is added
• these are in terms of Molarity and Volume

Equation: M1 L1 = M2 L2

Make sense? Molarity->Moles & Volume->Litres. Pretty easy.

It's all now in the matter of substituting the information given in the question, then using basic algebra to find the missing molarity or volume. Sometimes it will ask to set up the equation because not enough

 information is given, so you just have to determine what you will need. If you are asked for the amount of water was used, you simply subtract the two volumes.

Sometimes it gets tricky by involving only in grams and litres or g/mol. Remember that the grams have to be converted into moles first in order for the equation to work and for g/mol you will have to divide it by what  M1 x L1 equal to, to get your moles; simple algebra again to figure volume.