How do I calculate molality to percent by mass?

Convert 2.35 mol/kg RbNO3 (aq) solution to percent by mass.

1 Answer
Feb 21, 2018

25.7%

Explanation:

Your goal here is to figure out the number of grams of solute present for every "100 g" of the solution, i.e. the solution's percent concentration by mass, "% m/m".

Now, you know that the solution has a molality equal to "2.35 mol kg"^(-1). This tells you that this solution contains 2.35 moles of rubidium nitrate, the solute, for every "1 kg" of water, the solvent.

To make the calculations easier, pick a sample of this solution that contains exactly "1 kg" = 10^3 quad "g" of water. As we've said, this sample will also contain 2.35 moles of rubidium nitrate.

Use the molar mass of the solute to convert the number of moles to grams

2.35 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("moles RbNO"_3))) * "147.473 g"/(1color(red)(cancel(color(black)("mole RbNO"_3)))) = "346.56 g"

This means that the total mass of the sample is equal to

"346.56 g " + quad 10^3 quad "g" = "1346.56 g"

So, you know that you have "346.56 g" of rubidium nitrate in "1346.56 g" of the solution, so you can say that "100 g" of this solution will contain

100 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g solution"))) * "346.56 g RbNO"_3/(1346.56 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g solution")))) = "25.7 g RbNO"_3

This means that the solution's percent concentration by mass is equal to

color(darkgreen)(ul(color(black)("% m/m" = "25.7% RbNO"_3)))

This tells you that you get "25.7 g" of rubidium nitrate for every "100 g" of the solution.

The answer is rounded to three sig figs.