SEARCH TILL IT BECOMES A RESERACH

THINK_ IMAGINE_ QUESTION_ TRY ANSWERING_IN A Che’MYSTERY WORLD

For no particular reason I just transferred my household salt (iodized) into a dry jar. Instantly noticed the net weight as 1 kilogram. I thought of how many molecules of potassium iodate (KIO₃) it holds in, how many atoms of potassium, iodine and oxygen it has…and lot more questions were circulating in mind. To give a response, I tried out with MOLE concept. It may sound strange to a non-chemist. It’s actually a counting. To make it very simple I can say a dozen banana means 12 bananas similar way a mole of chocolate means 6.023*10²³ chocolates, a funny and weird thing! Ok, now all we have to do is to learn few conversions as follows:

1 mole= 6.023*10²³ particles (a huge number)                        = 602300000000000000000000 particles   

1 mole= gram equivalent weight

1 mole= 22.4 liters

The solution goes like 😊

Step 1: convert kg to g (1 kg= 1000 g)

        1 kg * 1000 g / 1 kg = 1000 g

Step 2: convert g to mole (1 mole= gram equivalent weight)

        Gram equivalent of KIO₃=   39.0983

                                  126.90447

                 3(15.999)=    +   47.997

                                  213.99977 g

Now, 1000 g*1 mole/ 213.99977 g= 4.6729 mole

Step 3: convert mole to molecules (1 mole= 6.023*10²³ molecules)

             4.6729 mole*6.023*10²³/ 1 mole= 2.81448767*10²⁴ molecules (approximately 3*10²⁴ molecules)

Therefore, there are 3*10²⁴ molecules of potassium iodate in 1kilogram of that household salt.

Alternative method:

No. of potassium	1(6.023*1023)	6.023*1023 atoms
No. of iodine	1(6.023*1023)	6.023*1023 atoms
No. of oxygen	3(6.023*1023)	1.8069*1024 atoms
Total		3.0115*1024 molecules

In addition, I noticed ‘iodine content above 15 ppm’ underneath the ingredients.

I knew that parts per million is one of the concentration term which is abbreviated as PPM. It is more applicable to dilute solution i.e., solvent containing trace amount of solute. You may ask me that what does concentration terms mean by? It is all related with solution where there we find the quantity or the amount of solute dissolved in a solvent. Okay at this moment we will discuss about the statement iodine content above 15 ppm. Firstly, 15 ppm is nothing but 15 grams of solute in 10⁶ grams (1 million) of solution. To find the iodine content in ppm of my salt, I just picked up the needed data from the tabulation saying nutritional information and loaded them in my formula. It says that “nutritional information per 100 grams” that means the weight of solution is 100 g and the amount of iodine per 100 g is 2 mg (also given).

We know, 1 gram= 1000 milligram

So the weight of solution= 100 g

And the weight of iodine per 100 g= 0.002 g

PARTS PER MILLION= weight of solute/ weight of solution * 10⁶

PARTS PER MILLION= 0.002 g/ 100 g * 10⁶

PARTS PER MILLION= 20 parts per million (obviously the value of iodine in ppm is above 15).

Therefore, my household salt iodine content is roughly 20 ppm.

For accurate result we can adopt iodometric titration and report the value in parts per million.

In General, Iodine is required for normal growth, thyroid and brain function. Also helps in mental development of children. 👉We must always ensure the amount of iodine must range from 15-40 parts per million (recommended by World Health Organization).