Final answer:
To find the thickness of an oleic acid monolayer, the mass is first converted to volume using density, and then divided by the area to get the thickness, which is about 1.782 nm in this case.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the thickness of the monolayer of oleic acid, we'll first convert the mass of oleic acid to volume using its density, and then divide that volume by the area to find the thickness.
The density of oleic acid is given as 0.895 g/mL. Thus, for 3.19 × 10−6 g of oleic acid, the volume (V) can be calculated using the formula V = mass/density.
V = (3.19 × 10−6 g) / (0.895 g/mL) = 3.56424581005587 × 10−6 mL
To find the thickness (t), we divide the volume of the monolayer by its area: t = V / Area.
t = (3.56424581005587 × 10−6 mL) / (20.0 cm2)
t = 1.78212290502793 × 10−7 cm or approximately 1.782 nm.
Therefore, the thickness of the oleic acid monolayer is roughly 1.782 nm, which can be taken as the length of an oleic acid molecule.