1.1.1 Formulae & Mass

Basic terms

• There are basic terms that you are expected to know from your previous studies
  • Atom
    • A single particle
    • The smallest part of an element that can participate in a chemical reaction
  • Element
    • An atom or group of atoms of only one type, which can be chemically joined or not
    • A substance that cannot be broken down into simpler substances
  • Ion
    • An atom that has become electrically charged
    • An atom (or group of atoms) that has gained or lost electrons to become a charged species
  • Molecule
    • Two or more atoms chemically joined together
  • Compound
    • A substance with two or more elements chemically joined together
  • Empirical formula
    • The smallest whole-number ratio of atoms (of each element) in a compound/molecule
  • Molecular formula
    • The actual number of atoms (of each element) in a compound/molecule

• The relative mass of an atom uses the carbon-12 isotope as the international standard 
• One atom of carbon-12 has an accepted mass of 1.992646538 x 10^-26 kg
• It is not realistic to work with this value so the mass of a carbon-12 atom is fixed as exactly 12 atomic mass units / 12υ
• The standard mass for atomic mass is 1υ
  • Therefore, the standard mass for comparison is the mass of  of a carbon-12 atom

Relative isotopic mass

• Relative isotopic mass is defined as the mass of an isotope relative to  of a carbon-12 atom
• For A Level Chemistry it is common to work with mass values rounded to one decimal place, for example:
• The accurate relative isotopic mass of nitrogen is 14.00307401 but this is rounded to 14.0
• The accurate relative isotopic mass of oxygen is 15.99491464 but this is rounded to 16.0

Relative atomic mass

• Most elements on the Periodic Table represent a mixture of different isotopes, which is shown as their relative atomic mass (A_r) 
• The relative atomic mass is the weighted mean / average mass of an atom relative to of the mass of a carbon-12 atom

• We have seen previously that the symbol for the relative atomic mass is A_r
• This is calculated from the mass number and relative abundances of all the isotopes of a particular element
• The symbol for the relative formula mass is M_r and it refers to the total mass of the substance
  • The term relative formula mass should be used for compounds with giant structures e.g. ionic compounds such as sodium chloride
  • If the substance is molecular you can use the term relative molecular mass
• To calculate the M_r of a substance, you have to add up the relative atomic masses of all the atoms present in the formula

Relative Formula Mass Calculations Table

Exam Tip