What is the molarity of a solution prepared by dissolving 1.56 g of gaseous HCl (molar mass = 36.5 g) into enough water to make 26.8 mL of solution?

1 Answer
Nov 11, 2015

#"1.59 M"#

Explanation:

The first thing to check here is how much hydrogen chloride, #"HCl"#, can you dissolve in water at room temperature. This will help you make sure that all the mass of hydrogen chloride will actually dissolve.

At room temperature, hydrogen chloride has a solubility of about #"720 g/L"#, which means that your #"26.8-mL"# sample will hold as much as

#26.8color(red)(cancel(color(black)("mL"))) * "720 g HCl"/(1000color(red)(cancel(color(black)("mL")))) = "19.3 g HCl"#

Now that you know that all the hydrogen achloride will actually dissolve, you can use its molar mass to determine how many moles you have in the #"1.56-g"# sample

#1.56color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g"))) * "1 mole HCl"/(36.5color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g")))) = "0.04274 moles HCl"#

Now, molarity is defined as moles of solution, which in your case is hydrogen chloride, divided by liters of solution.

#color(blue)("molarity" = "moles of solute"/"liters of solution")#

In your case, the molarity of the resulting solution will be

#c = "0.04274 moles"/(26.8 * 10^(-3)"L") = "1.5948 M"#

Rounded to three sig figs, the answer will be

#c = color(green)("1.59 M")#