The
stoichiometric concentration,
,
of a component B in a system is given by the expression:
where
is the
stoichiometricamount of substance of
component B in the system and
is the volume of the system. The component added to the system may dissociate or react
with other components to form a series of derived components and only a fraction of
the original component may actually exist in a free form in the system. It is therefore
essential to distinguish between the
stoichiometric concentration and the
amount-of-substance concentration of the free form of the component in the system. Sometimes
stoichiometric quantities are indicated by a subscript
(
), e.g.
,
.
In clinical chemistry, the term
stoichiometric concentration is rarely employed. Instead, the name of the component is modified
to indicate inclusion of the various derived forms, e.g. mixtures of a defined chemical
component and its derivatives may be denoted by the plural form of the name of the
pure unchanged substance, or to indicate the sum of components specified in individual
quantities the specification '
total' may be employed.
Source:
PAC, 1984, 56, 567
(Physicochemical quantities and units in clinical chemistry with special emphasis
on activities and activity coefficients (Recommendations 1983))
on page 568
