Mole Chemistry

The mole concept

The mole concept is in chemistry used to calculate the quantity or amount of chemical substances that are used and produced in a chemical reaction.

There are various words in English that are associated with various quantities as show by the table below.

Term	Dozen	Century	Gross	Ream	Millenium
Quantity	12	100	144	500	1 000

In Chemistry the quantities of a dozen, a century, a gross, ream and millenium are far too small.

Even a million is too small. One million atoms of iron weighs 0.0000000000000000928 grams!

Chemist’s measure atomic particles using a large QUANTITY called the mole.

One mole is equal to 602214179000000000000000 or 6.022 x 10²³ particles.

Scientists have defined a mole as the number of carbon atoms in exactly 12 grams of carbon-12.

This number is called AVOGADRO’S NUMBER.

Amedeo Avogadro was an Italian physicist whose work lead to the development of the mole.

One mole is 6.022 x 10²³ particles

The symbol for the number of moles is n. The unit used in measurement is the mol.

A description of the particle should be included. In Chemistry the particles may be atoms, ions, molecules or sub-atomic particles like the electron.

Shorthand notation	n(Fe) = 1 mol	n(H₂O) = 1.5 mol	n(OH^-) = 0.25 mol	n(e^-) = 0.1 mol
Means	1 mole of iron atoms	1.5 moles of water molecules	0.25 moles of hydroxide ions	0.1 moles of electrons