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Section 1: Principles of Chemistry:

Part 2: Chemical formulae & Chemical equations (or Stoichiometry)
Balancing Equations
A chemical reaction can be described as the process of going from reactants to
products (aka. The things you start with form different products during the reaction).

In order to show the change from the reactants to products during a reaction we
write word or symbol equations to show the reaction.

You should also insert state symbols which tell you what physical state the reactants
and products are in:

(s) = solid (l) = liquid (g) = gas (aq) = Aqueous (dissolved in water)
E.g.

OR

However, symbol equations must be balanced, meaning that there must be the same
number of atoms on both sides, as atoms cannot be lost from the equation.

You can balance equations by putting the relevant number in front of the formulae.

Timed Practise: http://www.creative-chemistry.org.uk/gcse/revision/equations/02.htm

More practise & explanation:
http://www.chemistryrules.me.uk/junior/chemical_equations.htm

Isotopes & Relative Atomic and Formula Mass

Isotopes: Are different atomic forms of the same element, which have the SAME number of
PROTONS, but a DIFFERENT number of NEUTRONS.
(E.g. Carbon-12 and Carbon-14: both have 6 protons and electrons, making them carbon atoms, but Carbon-14 has 8
neutrons rather than 6 as its mass is 14. Isotopes can be both stable and unstable and an example of their use is the two
carbons in carbon dating.)
Relative Atomic Mass ( ): The weighted mean mass of one mole of

Relative Formula
Mass ( ): All the
relative atomic
masses in a
compound added up.
Just use the periodic table
to find the atomic mass for
each of the elements and
add. If you have something
like simply multiply the
atomic mass by the
number of atoms.

an element compared to one mole of Carbon-12 taking account of all

isotopes in their relative abundances (which just means how much there is of
each isotope compared to the total amount of the element in the world)
You can find the relative atomic mass of any element on the periodic table- it is the mass
number (the top one which is larger than the other: think MASSive number)
To find it (without the periodic table):
1) Multiply the mass of each isotope by
its relative abundance
2) Add those together
3) Divide by the sum of the relative
abundances

Relative Atomic mass of chlorine:

There are 2 isotopes- (Cl- 35 & Cl-37) and the
relative abundance shows that there are 3
atoms of Cl-35 to every 1 of Cl-37.

35 3
3

37 1
= 35.5
1

Main Source: CGP Revision Guide for Edexcel Certificate/ International GCSE for Chemistry

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Empirical & Molecular Formulae

Empirical Formula of a compound: the simplest
formula that tells you the ratio of different
elements in the compound
To calculate an empirical formula:

Molecular Formula of a compound: the

actual number of atoms of each element in a
single molecule. (The whole number
multiples of empirical formulae)

1) List all the elements in the compound

2) Underneath them, write their experimental masses or compounds (the mass or % that they
will give to you)
3) Divide each mass or percentage by the relative atomic mass for that particular element
4) Turn the numbers you get into a ratio by multiplying and/or dividing them by numbers that
will leave you with a nice ratio
5) Get the ratio in its simplest form- this is the empirical formula

Example: 3.2g of sulfur reacts with oxygen to produce 6.4g of sulfur oxide. What is the formula of the oxide?
The

of sulfur is 32 and the

of oxygen is 16.

Find the mass of each element. Conservation of mass tells us that the mass of oxygen = the mass of
sulfur oxide - the mass of sulfur. The mass of oxygen reacted = 6.4 - 3.2 = 3.2g. So we have 3.2g of
sulfur and 3.2g of oxygen.

Now divide the mass of each element by its Ar value.

Sulfur: 3.2 32 = 0.1. Oxygen: 3.2 16 = 0.2

Finally, find the ratio of the elements. You can do this by dividing the results by the smallest of the
numbers to give you the number of atoms of each element in the compound. In this case the smallest
value is 0.1, so divide both results by that. (If one of the numbers end in 0.5 multiply all the numbers
by 2 - this is because you cannot have half-atoms in a compound.)
Source:
S = 0.1 0.1 = 1. O = 0.2 0.1 = 2. So the ratio of sulfur to oxygen is 1:2

The number of atoms tells you that the formula for sulfur oxide is SO2

To calculate a molecular formula:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebite
size/science/add_aqa_pre_2011/chemc
alc/chemcalc_higherrev2.shtml

As the molecular formula is just the actual number of atoms of each element in a single molecule,
we can use the ratio and the relative molecular mass (same as formula mass) to calculate how many
times we have to multiply the empirical formula to get the molecular formula.
Firstly find the mass of the empirical formula (same as Relative Formula Mass) and then divide the
molecular mass by your empirical mass result. Multiply the empirical formula by this amount, giving
you the molecular mass.
Example: A molecule has an empirical formula of

, and a relative molecular mass of 166g.Find the

molecular formula.

Find the mass of the empirical formula: (4 x 12) + (3 x 1) + (2 x 16) = 48 + 3 + 32 = 83g

The relative molecular mass is 166, so there are 166 83 = 2 empirical units in the molecule
The molecular formula must be the empirical formula x 2, so the molecular formula must be
2 which is = to

Main Source: CGP Revision Guide for Edexcel Certificate/ International GCSE for Chemistry

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Calculating Masses in Reactions & Yields

To calculate the mass of a substance in a reaction:
Example: What mass of magnesium oxide is produced when 60g of magnesium is burnt in air?
1) Write out the balanced equation:
2) Work out the relative formula masses of the two bits you want and multiply them
by the balancing numbers in the equation:
=
1 =
3) Apply the rule: Divide to get one, multiply to get all. The two numbers 48 and 80
tell us that 48g of Mg react to give 80g of MgO. So we need to find out what happens
when 60g of Mg is burnt in the air:
48g of Mg80g of MgO
48

48 to get the mass of MgO made from 1g of Mg

1g of Mg..1.67g of MgO
60

60g of Mg100g of MgO

60 to get the mass of Mg O made from the 60g

of Mg

This tells us that 60g of magnesium will produce 100g of magnesium oxide. Simply
fill in the other side first if you need to find out the mass of magnesium.

Source: CGP Book

The mass of product (in the case above the magnesium oxide) is called the yield of a
reaction. Masses you calculate in this way are called theoretical yields. In practise you will
never get 100% of the yield because:
-Reversible reactions may not go to completion
-Some product may be lost when it is removed from the reaction mixture
-Some of the reactants may react in an unexpected way

Therefore, the amount of product produced or yield will be less than the theoretical yield
calculated.
We can calculate the percentage yield of the amount of product you actually get or actual
yield. You can find the percentage yield using the following equation:
=

The theoretical yield is the maximum theoretical mass of product

in a reaction (calculated using the idea of conservation of mass).
The percentage yield is the ratio of actual mass of products obtained
compared with the maximum theoretical mass. 0% means no reactants
were converted into product, meaning that no product was made.

The actual yield is the mass of product you get

when you actually do the reaction.
Source:
http://ichemey.blogspot.co.uk/201
3/01/percentage-yield.html

Main Source: CGP Revision Guide for Edexcel Certificate/ International GCSE for Chemistry

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Moles
A mole is just a name given to a certain number- this number is .
. {This
number is called Avogadros number of Avogadro constant, and a mole has the Avogadro
number of particles (particles being atoms, molecules, ions or electrons)} When you have
this number of atoms or molecules of any element or compound then the weight of these
atoms or molecules will be the same number of grams as the relative atomic mass or
relative formula mass of the element or compound.
So:

One mole of atoms or molecules of any substance will have a mass in grams equal
to the relative formula mass for that substance.
For example: Carbon has an
of 12, so one mole of carbon weighs exactly 12g.
Has an
of 44 so one mole will weigh exactly 44g. This means that in 12g of Carbon and 44g of
Carbon Dioxide, there are the same numbers of particles. Therefore the molar mass of a
substance is just another way of saying the mass of one mole. Molar mass is measured in
grams.
Formula to find the number of moles in a given mass:
=

Moles & Concentration

The concentration of a solution is usually measured in
can be found by
by 1000.
=

or

. The

You can also convert

to
by converting the moles per
mass per
by using the formula: moles = mass .

into

When calculating concentration using grams per

rather than moles, just divide the
mass of the chemical in grams by the volume of solvent you used to dissolve it
.

Main Source: CGP Revision Guide for Edexcel Certificate/ International GCSE for Chemistry

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Water of Crystallisation
Some salts are hydrated, meaning that their structure contains water molecules as well as positive
and negative ions. These water molecules are called water of crystallisation when within the salt.

All solid salts consist of a lattice of positive and negative ions. In hydrated salts, water
molecules are also incorporated into this lattice; the small positive charge on the hydrogen
atoms and small negative charge on the oxygen atoms attract the water molecule to the
ions in the lattice, keeping the water in place in the salt. The water in the lattice of a
hydrated, solid salt is called water of crystallisation. When there is no water of
crystallisation in a salt, it is called anhydrous.
The amount of water of crystallisation in a salt can be calculated:
One mole of a hydrated salt always has a particular number of moles of water of

crystallisation, and its formula shows how many. It is always a whole number.
E.g. hydrated copper sulphate has five moles of water for every one mole of the salt.
So its formula is
.5
. Notice the dot!
Many hydrated salts lose their water of crystallisation when heated and become anhydrous.
If you know the mass of the salt when its hydrated and when its anhydrous, you can work
its formula out, to calculate the number of moles of water of crystallisation, or X.

Find the mass of the

hydrated and
anhydrous salts.

Experimental data will consist of the mass of the empty

crucible, the mass of crucible + hydrated salt and the mass of
crucible + anhydrous salt. Therefore just take away the mass of
empty crucible from both forms of the salt to find the masses.

Calculate the
no. of moles
of water lost.

Find the mass of water lost by taking the mass of the hydrated from
of salt away from the anhydrous form. Then, to find the number of
moles of water lost, do mass (which for is 18).
The molar mass of the anhydrous salt is just its with the
unit g/mol. As we know from Step 1 the mass of the anhydrous
salt, we divide the mass by the molar mass (or ) using the
equation moles = mass .

Calculate no. of
moles of
anhydrous salt
made.

Work out ratio of moles

of anhydrous salt to
moles of water.

From the last two steps, we know the moles of salt and the moles
of water, therefore we can make the ratio for the answer to step
3: the answer to step 2. Now, in order to find the ratio for one
mole of salt, you have to divide 1 by your moles of anhydrous salt.
Once you have that number, multiply the numbers on both sides
of your ratio by it, giving you the moles of water for 1 mole of
anhydrous salt.

X (the formula for the

water of crystallisation)
must be whole number,
so round off result.

As X, or the number of moles in front of the , you

can round off your results, as some experimental
errors are likely. Put X after the dot, but in front of the

Main Source: CGP Revision Guide for Edexcel Certificate/ International GCSE for Chemistry