What would be the final volume of a 10.4% (m/v) solution made from 5.00 g of solute?

1 Answer
Mar 14, 2018

"48.1 mL"48.1 mL

Explanation:

The idea here is that a solution's mass by volume percent concentration, "m/v %"m/v %, tells you the number of grams of solute present in exactly "100 mL"100 mL of the solution.

In your case, the solution is said to have a mass by volume percent concentration of 10.4%10.4%, which implies that every "100 mL"100 mL of this solution contain "10.4 g"10.4 g of solute.

Now, you know that your target solution must contain "5.00 g"5.00 g of solute, so you can determine the volume of the solution by using the mass by volume percent concentration as a conversion factor.

5.00 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g solute"))) * "100 mL solution"/(10.4color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g solute")))) = color(darkgreen)(ul(color(black)("48.1 mL solution")))

The answer is rounded to three sig figs, the number of sig figs you have for your values.

So, in order to make this "10.4% m/v" solution, you need to dissolve "5.00 g" of solute in enough water to get the total volume of the solution to "48.1 mL".