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Chemistry vocabulary · Solutions and Concentration

Solution

Meaning in chemistry, with examples

nounCore term

In chemistry, solution means: A uniform mixture in which one substance (the solute) is completely dissolved in another (the solvent). Salt water and sugar dissolved in tea are everyday examples.

In Turkish: çözelti

How it is used

One of the most used words in the lab. You prepare, make up, dilute, stir and filter solutions; a solution can be aqueous, saturated, concentrated or dilute. Context tells you whether 'solution' means the mixture or the answer to a problem.

Example sentences

  1. Prepare 250 mL of a 0.1 M sodium hydroxide solution.

  2. The solution turned blue when we added the copper sulfate.

Common collocations

  • prepare a solution
  • aqueous solution
  • stock solution
  • saturated solution
  • dilute solution
  • solventThe substance, usually a liquid, that dissolves another substance to form a solution. Water is the most common one; ethanol, acetone and hexane are widely used organic ones.
  • soluteThe substance that gets dissolved in a solvent to make a solution. In salt water, the salt plays this role and the water is the solvent.
  • concentrationThe amount of a substance in a given volume of solution or mixture, for example in moles per liter (mol/L), grams per liter or parts per million (ppm).
  • aqueousDescribes a solution in which water is the solvent. In equations it is shown by the state symbol (aq), as in NaCl(aq).
  • molarityA measure of concentration: the number of moles of solute in one liter of solution. Its unit is mol/L, written M and read 'molar'.

More terms: Solutions and Concentration

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