How many grams of "CuSO"_4CuSO4 would be dissolved in 5.1 L of 0.5 M "CuSO"_4CuSO4 solution?

It is a molarity question.

1 Answer
Nov 21, 2016

"410 g"410 g

Explanation:

Molarity is simply a measure of how many moles of solute you have in one liter of a given solution. In order for a solution to have a molarity of "1 M"1 M, it must contain 11 mole of solute for every "1 L"1 L of solution.

In your case, you have a "0.5 M"0.5 M solution of copper(II) sulfate, "CuSO"_4CuSO4. This tells you that "1 L"1 L of this solution contains 0.50.5 moles of copper(II) sulfate.

Since you have more than "1 L"1 L of this solution, you are going to get more than 0.50.5 moles of solute. More specifically, you will get

5.1 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("L solution"))) * "0.5 moles CuSO"_4/(1color(red)(cancel(color(black)("L solution")))) = "2.55 moles CuSO"_4

Finally, use the molar mass of copper(II) sulfate to convert the number of moles to grams

2.55 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("moles CuSO"_4))) * "159.61 g"/(1color(red)(cancel(color(black)("mole CuSO"_4)))) = color(darkgreen)(ul(color(black)("410 g")))

I'll leave the answer rounded to two sig figs, but keep in mind that you only have one significant figure for the molarity of the solution.