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"

Explanation:

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

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

Now, you know that your target solution must contain "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".