How to obtain 1 mole of table salt (NaCl)?? but not using an electronic balance.?

Question

We are ask to prepare 1 mole of NaCl at home. Thus, how do we prepare it when there is no electronic balance?

Answer 1

You could measure it volumetrically.

1 mole of salt is equal to Na = 22.99 g/mol, Cl = 35.45 g/mol, therefore NaCl = 58.44 g/mol

So you need 55.44 grams. Use the Density to convert from mass to volume.  The density of NaCl = 2.165 g/cm^3.

55.44 g/mol / 2.165 g/cm^3 = 25.61 cm^3/mol

Of course a cm^3 is a milliliter, so you need 25.61 mL of salt to have a mole.

The likely-hood of you having a graduated cylinder at home aren't very good so convert it to tablespoons or teaspoons.

1 mL = 0.202884136 teaspoons

25.61 mL *  0.202884136 tsp/mL = 5.20 teaspoons

So, 5.2 teaspoons of table salt = 1 mole

Answer 2

One mole of NaCl is about 58 grams.  There are about 454 grams in one pound, so you want 58/454 = 0.12 pounds of NaCl.  If you can measure this using some other instrument, that would be close to one mole.  Using tablespoons and teaspoons will not be accurate.

Answer 3

I get the feeling it's something to do with dissolving it in water, then boiling off said water to get just the salt

Answer 4

The easiest is to use a measuring cup. Convert moles to grams; divide by g/cc to get cc's. Many measuring cups are graduated in cc's (metric). IF yours does not, convert cc's to fluid ounces.