In chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

, the mole fraction is defined as the amount

Amount of substance

Amount of substance is a standards-defined quantity that measures the size of an ensemble of elementary entities, such as atoms, molecules, electrons, and other particles. It is sometimes referred to as chemical amount. The International System of Units defines the amount of substance to be...

 of a constituent divided by the total amount of all constituents in a mixture :


The sum of all the mole fractions is equal to 1:


The mole fraction is also called the amount fraction. It is identical to the number fraction, which is defined as the number of molecule

Molecule

A molecule is an electrically neutral group of at least two atoms held together by covalent chemical bonds. Molecules are distinguished from ions by their electrical charge...

s of a constituent divided by the total number of all molecules . It is one way of expressing the composition of a mixture in a dimensionless size (mass fraction is another). The mole fraction is sometimes denoted by the lower case Greek

Greek alphabet

The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...

 letter χ (chi

Chi (letter)

Chi is the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet, pronounced as in English.-Greek:-Ancient Greek:Its value in Ancient Greek was an aspirated velar stop .-Koine Greek:...

) instead of a Roman

Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...

 . For mixtures of gases, the letter is recommended.

Properties

Mole fraction is used very frequently in the construction of phase diagram

Phase diagram

A phase diagram in physical chemistry, engineering, mineralogy, and materials science is a type of chart used to show conditions at which thermodynamically distinct phases can occur at equilibrium...

s. It has a number of advantages:

• it is not temperature dependent (such as molar concentration) and does not require knowledge of the densities of the phase(s) involved
• a mixture of known mole fraction can be prepared by weighing off the appropriate masses of the constituents
• the measure is symmetric: in the mole fractions x=0.1 and x=0.9, the roles of 'solvent' and 'solute' are reversed.
• In a mixture of ideal gases
  Ideal gas
  An ideal gas is a theoretical gas composed of a set of randomly-moving, non-interacting point particles. The ideal gas concept is useful because it obeys the ideal gas law, a simplified equation of state, and is amenable to analysis under statistical mechanics.At normal conditions such as...
  
  , the mole fraction can be expressed as the ratio of partial pressure
  Partial pressure
  In a mixture of ideal gases, each gas has a partial pressure which is the pressure which the gas would have if it alone occupied the volume. The total pressure of a gas mixture is the sum of the partial pressures of each individual gas in the mixture....
  
   to total pressure
  Pressure
  Pressure is the force per unit area applied in a direction perpendicular to the surface of an object. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure.- Definition :...
  
   of the mixture.

Mass fraction

The mass fraction  can be calculated using the formula


where is the molar mass of the component and is the average molar mass

Molar mass

Molar mass, symbol M, is a physical property of a given substance , namely its mass per amount of substance. The base SI unit for mass is the kilogram and that for amount of substance is the mole. Thus, the derived unit for molar mass is kg/mol...

of the mixture.

Mole percentage

Multiplying mole fraction by 100 gives the mole percentage, also referred as amount/amount percent (abbreviated as n/n%).