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By Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D., About.com Guide to Chemistry since 2001

Molarity? Molality?

Wednesday April 28, 2004
Units of chemistry are case-sensitive! A 6 M solution of a compound refers to a 6 Molar dilution, which has a concentration of 6 moles soluter per liter of solution. A 6 m solution refers to a 6 molal dilution, which has a concentration of 6 moles of solute per kilogram of solution. Molarity and molality may be equivalent in some situations, especially if the solvent used to make the solution is water (where a liter weighs about a kilogram). However, the terms and the solutions aren't usually interchangeable. Here's a handy reference defining the units of concentration and here's a set of worked example problems for molarity.

Comments

December 13, 2006 at 5:31 am
(1) Rainer says:

there is a mistake in your definition of molality on this page: molality is definded per kg of solvent and NOT per kg of solution !

January 7, 2008 at 7:46 pm
(2) DEW72 says:

Yeah, Ranier is right, its
m= Moles of Solute/ Lg pf SOLVENT (not solution)

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