Stoichiometry of Reactions Between Ions in Solutions

Key Questions

  • Answer:

    Well, stoichiometry requires EQUIVALENCE with respect to mass and charge....

    Explanation:

    And for an older treatment of the principles involved, see [this old answer.](https://socratic.org/questions/can-you-explain-balancing-chemical-equations-in-detail) And the fundamental principle of stoichiometry is "garbage in equals garbage out". Every chemical reaction must be balanced with respect to mass and charge. A 10*g mass of reactants from all sources yields at most a 10*g mass of products.

    "Molarity" is a concentration term, i.e. "molarity"="moles of solute"/"volume of solution"...and as such it has the units of mol*L^-1.. And so if we have TWO of the three quantities, say "molarity" and "volume", we can get the third.."moles of solute"...

    "molarity"xx"volume"="moles"....and this is certainly consistent dimensionally. What do I mean by this?

    And a practical example? Well suppose I gots a 100*mL volume of HCl(aq), that is 1*mol*L^-1 with respect to HCl. What mass of sodium hydroxide is required for equivalence?

    We write out the stoichiometric equation as a preliminary:

    HCl(aq) + NaOH(aq)rarr NaCl(aq) +H_2O(l)

    n_"HCl"=0.100*Lxx1*mol*L^-1=0.100*mol

    And for equivalence we require equimolar sodium hydroxide...

    0.100*molxxunderbrace(40.0*g*mol^-1)_"molar mass of NaOH"=4.00*g...i.e. a 4*g mass of hydroxide is required for equivalence.

  • Answer:

    How? The idea that not only mass is conserved but charge is conserved is a tenet of stoichiometry.

    Explanation:

    At its simplest level, stoichiometry embodies conservation of mass. If there are 10 g of reactant, at most there can be 10 g of product. But while mass is conserved in a chemical reaction; charge is also conserved. When we represent a redox reaction we use the addition/removal of electrons to represent reduction/oxidation respectively. Cross multiplication of the individual redox reactions shows how charge is conserved.

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