Formality

2B.1 Molarity and Formality Both molarity and formality express concentration as moles of solute per liter of solution. There is, however, a subtle difference between molarity and formality. Molarity is the concentration of a particular chemical species in solution. Formality, on the other hand, is a substance’s total concentration in solution without regard to its specific chemical form. There is no difference between a substance’s molarity and formality if it dissolves without dissociating into ions. The molar concentration of a solution of glucose, for example, is the same as its formality. For substances that ionize in solution, such as NaCl, molarity and formality are different. For example, dissolving 0.1 mol of NaCl in 1 L of water gives a solution containing 0.1 mol of Na+ and 0.1 mol of Cl–. The molarity of NaCl, therefore, is zero since there is essentially no undissociated NaCl in solution. The solution,