I have 2oz concentrated 40% aqueous solution, I want to dilute it 10% , How I dilute it ??? Please I need you kind help. Thank you

1 Answer
Nov 4, 2015

Add "7.2 oz"7.2 oz of solvent.

Explanation:

The idea with dilution calculations is that every time you're diluting a solution, the number of moles of solute will remain constant.

In your case, you start with a 40%40% solution, which I assume is the percent concentration by mass, and need to determine how much solvent you need to add to it in order to get its concentration down to 10%10%.

color(blue)("%m/m" = "mass of solute"/"mass of solution" xx 100)%m/m=mass of solutemass of solution×100

A 40%40% concentration by mass will contain "40 oz"40 oz of solute for every "100 oz"100 oz of solution.

In your case, the "2-oz"2-oz sample will contain

2color(red)(cancel(color(black)("oz solution"))) * "40 oz solute"/(100color(red)(cancel(color(black)("oz solution")))) = "0.80 oz solute"

Now, when you dilute this olution, the mass of solute remains unchanged. Let's say that you add x grams of solvent to get the concentration down to10%. This means that you can write

10% = (0.80color(red)(cancel(color(black)("oz"))))/((0.80 + x)color(red)(cancel(color(black)("oz")))) xx 100

Solve this equation for x to get

10 * (0.80 + x) = 0.80 * 100

8 + 10x = 80

10x = 72 implies x = 72/10 = 7.2

So, if you add "7.2 oz" of solvent to your "2-oz", 40% solution will get a 10% solution that has the total volume of "9,2 oz".