Concentration


In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: mass concentration, molar concentration, number concentration, and volume concentration. A concentration can be any kind of chemical mixture, but most frequently solutes and solvents in solutions. The molar concentration has variants such as normal concentration and osmotic concentration.

Qualitative description

Often in informal, non-technical language, concentration is described in a qualitative way, through the use of adjectives such as "dilute" for solutions of relatively low concentration and "concentrated" for solutions of relatively high concentration. To concentrate a solution, one must add more solute, or reduce the amount of solvent. By contrast, to dilute a solution, one must add more solvent, or reduce the amount of solute. Unless two substances are miscible, there exists a concentration at which no further solute will dissolve in a solution. At this point, the solution is said to be saturated. If additional solute is added to a saturated solution, it will not dissolve, except in certain circumstances, when supersaturation may occur. Instead, phase separation will occur, leading to coexisting phases, either completely separated or mixed as a suspension. The point of saturation depends on many variables such as ambient temperature and the precise chemical nature of the solvent and solute.
Concentrations are often called levels, reflecting the mental schema of levels on the vertical axis of a graph, which can be high or low.

Quantitative notation

There are four quantities that describe concentration:

Mass concentration

The mass concentration is defined as the mass of a constituent divided by the volume of the mixture :
The SI unit is kg/m3.

Molar concentration

The molar concentration is defined as the amount of a constituent divided by the volume of the mixture :
The SI unit is mol/m3. However, more commonly the unit mol/L is used.

Number concentration

The number concentration is defined as the number of entities of a constituent in a mixture divided by the volume of the mixture :
The SI unit is 1/m3.

Volume concentration

The volume concentration is defined as the volume of a constituent divided by the volume of the mixture :
Being dimensionless, it is expressed as a number, e.g., 0.18 or 18%; its unit is 1.
There seems to be no standard notation in the English literature.
The letter used here is normative in German literature.

Related quantities

Several other quantities can be used to describe the composition of a mixture. Note that these should not be called concentrations.

Normality

Normality is defined as the molar concentration divided by an equivalence factor. Since the definition of the equivalence factor depends on context, IUPAC and NIST discourage the use of normality.

Molality

The molality of a solution is defined as the amount of a constituent divided by the mass of the solvent :
The SI unit for molality is mol/kg.

Mole fraction

The mole fraction is defined as the amount of a constituent divided by the total amount of all constituents in a mixture :
The SI unit is mol/mol. However, the deprecated parts-per notation is often used to describe small mole fractions.

Mole ratio

The mole ratio is defined as the amount of a constituent divided by the total amount of all other constituents in a mixture:
If is much smaller than, the mole ratio is almost identical to the mole fraction.
The SI unit is mol/mol. However, the deprecated parts-per notation is often used to describe small mole ratios.

Mass fraction

The mass fraction is the fraction of one substance with mass to the mass of the total mixture, defined as:
The SI unit is kg/kg. However, the deprecated parts-per notation is often used to describe small mass fractions.

Mass ratio

The mass ratio is defined as the mass of a constituent divided by the total mass of all other constituents in a mixture:
If is much smaller than, the mass ratio is almost identical to the mass fraction.
The SI unit is kg/kg. However, the deprecated parts-per notation is often used to describe small mass ratios.

Dependence on volume and temperature

Concentration depends on the variation of the volume of the solution with temperature due mainly to thermal expansion.

Table of concentrations and related quantities

Concentration typeSymbolDefinitionSI unitother unit
mass concentrationorkg/m3g/100mL
molar concentrationmol/m3M
number concentration1/m31/cm3
volume concentrationm3/m3
Related quantitiesSymbolDefinitionSI unitother unit
normalitymol/m3N
molalitymol/kg
mole fractionmol/molppm, ppb, ppt
mole ratiomol/molppm, ppb, ppt
mass fractionkg/kgppm, ppb, ppt
mass ratiokg/kgppm, ppb, ppt
volume fractionm3/m3ppm, ppb, ppt