Chemical Quantities: Amounts of Moles

Understanding “moles” is crucial for chemical equation balancing. A mole represents a quantity of a substance - specifically, 6.02 x 10^23 of something.
Often termed as Avogadro’s number, this 6.02 x 10^23 is estimated as the number of atoms in 12g of carbon-12. It’s the number of atoms, molecules, or ions in a mole of any substance.
A substance’s molar mass, expressed in grams per mole (g/mol), corresponds to the substance’s atomic or molecular weight.
Molar calculations often involve using the equation n = m/M where ‘n’ is number of moles, ‘m’ is mass and ‘M’ is molar mass.
The concept of moles helps in determining the yield of a chemical reaction. It allows you to predict how much product you get in a chemical reaction or how much reactant you need to produce a particular amount of product.
In a balanced chemical equation, coefficients represent the ratio of moles involved in the reaction.
Molar volumes can be used when dealing with gases. At standard temperature & pressure (STP), one mole of any gas occupies a volume of 22.4 litres.
Molar concentrations, dress-up in the units of moles/litre (mol/L) or molarity, are practical for solution reactions.
Stoichiometry employs the mole concept extensively. It allows for the calculation of reactants and products in chemical reactions.
Limiting reactants and excess reactants in a chemical reaction can be deduced with the help of the mole concept. The reactant that is fully consumed in the reaction is the limiting reactant.
Theoretical yield of a chemical reaction can be predicted with the help of the mole concept. By knowing the moles of reactants, you can calculate the moles and hence the mass of the products.
Empirical formulas, that show the simplest whole-number ratio of atoms in a compound, and molecular formulas, that show the actual numbers of each type of atom in a molecule of a compound, can be determined using the mole concept.
Real-life applications of the mole concept include drug prescription and preparing solutions in the pharmaceutical industry, reverse engineering products in the manufacturing industry, developing new materials in material science and many more.