[Murka]

Hey guys, I know it's a bit embarrasing, but one thing I just couldn't wrap my head around during my 3 years at the uni is Normal Concentration...I'm just about to finish and I still don't understand it!
I use Molar concentration whenever possible, yet I understand that it's unacceptable...so I came here for your help

I'm having a lab soon where I'll be determining the concentration of Hydrogen Peroxide using the following reaction with Permanganate:
2MnO₄^- + 5H₂O₂ + 6H⁺  2Mn²⁺ + 5O₂ + 8H₂O

The Permanganate is given as 0.1N
The Peroxide is said to be ~0.2N

So, how do I work with normal concentrations? Would just N1V1=N2V2 work here? How do I convert those to Molars later on? (For the lab report)

[Arkcon]

No.  The concentration of a 1.0 N solution depends on what the substance is.  Sorry, I know it sounds terrible, but that's the way it works.  If you want to, you should first convert to molarity, then try to compare the two solutions.

[Borek]

Using molar concentrations is perfectly OK. Normal are sometimes more convenient, but molarity is never wrong, while normality can be ambiguous.

0.1N permanganate is most likely 0.02M, as it accepts 5 electrons to produce Mn²⁺.

[curiouscat]

Using molar concentrations is perfectly OK. Normal are sometimes more convenient, but molarity is never wrong, while normality can be ambiguous.

0.1N permanganate is most likely 0.02M, as it accepts 5 electrons to produce Mn²⁺.

+1.

To me Normality is more of a "shortcut". Personally I avoid using it as well.