A solution of sodium chloride in water has a vapor pressure of 19.6 torr at 25 degrees Celsius. What is the mole fraction of NaCl solute particles in this solution?

1 Answer
Nov 21, 2015

0.1730.173

Explanation:

The vapor pressure for a solution that contains a non-volatile solute will depend on the vapor pressure of the pure solvent at that temperature and on the mole faction of the solvent.

color(blue)(P_"sol" = chi_"solvent" * P_"solvent"^@)" "Psol=χsolventPsolvent , where

P_"sol"Psol - the vapor pressure of the solution
chi_"solvent"χsolvent - the mole fraction of the solvent
P_"solvent"^@Psolvent - the vapor pressure of the pure solvent

This means that in order to be able to calculate the mole fraction of sodium chloride, you need to know what the vapor pressure of pure water is at 25^@"C"25C.

You can use an online calculator to find that the vapor pressure of pure water at 25^@"C"25C is equal to about "23.7 torr"23.7 torr.

http://www.endmemo.com/chem/vaporpressurewater.php

So, plug in your values into the above equation and solve for chi_"water"χwater

chi_"water" = P_"sol"/P_"water"^@χwater=PsolPwater

chi_"water" = (19.6color(red)(cancel(color(black)("torr"))))/(23.7color(red)(cancel(color(black)("torr")))) = 0.827

Since the solution only contains water and sodium chloride, you can say that

chi_"water" + chi_"NaCl" = 1

This means that the mole fraction of sodium chloride is

chi_"NaCl" = 1 - chi_"water"

chi_"NaCl" = 1 - 0.827 = color(green)(0.173)