Working with moles: the stoichiometric factor.

Abstract

Very often one must calculate the amount of a substance A that can be obtained from a given amount of reagent B. In volumetric or gravimetric analysis, the goal is, according to the case, to determine the mass of the analyte from a volume measurement or from the weight of the gravimetric species. Some intermediate processes and reactions can take place in the quantitation. In all instances, a conversion between chemical species is necessary. This conversion is readily carried out by using the so called stoichiometric factor, which is simply a stoichiometric coefficients ratio. In this exercise, an easy rule is offered to convert quickly moles (or mass) of A to moles (or mass) of B. This rule never fails. This is shown with some examples