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Example: Find the total charge for a mole of electrons
How much total charge (in coulombs) is in one mole of electrons?
Facts
- The Avogadro constant is NA=6.022⋅1023 mol−1. This is easy to look up, which is what we did.
- Note: When we write the unit as mol−1, we mean particles per mole. We could also write this unit as mol−1=1mol.
- All electrons have the same charge, which is e=−1.602⋅10−19 C.
Goal
- Find the amount of charge in 1 mole of electrons.
Solution
The total charge Q can be written as the number of particles N times the charge of each particle (e, for electrons): Q=N⋅e. We know e, and since we know we are interested in exactly 1 mole, we can find N: N=1 mol⋅6.022⋅1023 mol−1=6.022⋅1023
We now have N and e. The total charge Q is then given by
Q=N⋅e=6.022⋅1023⋅−1.602⋅10−19 C=−9.647⋅104 C