Question

Determine the empirical formula of a compound containing 48.38 grams of carbon, 6.74 grams of hydrogen, and 53.5 grams of oxygen.

in an experiment, the molar mass of the compound was determined to be 180.15 g/mol. what is the molecular formula of the compound?

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Answer 1

First, I will convert from grams to moles. This will give me approximately 4.032 moles of carbon, 6.740 moles of hydrogen, and 3.344 moles of oxygen. Then, I will calculate the mole ratio, using whole numbers. I must also identify the least amount of moles in an element for this step, which is oxygen at 3.344 moles.

Oxygen = 3.344/3.344 = 1

Carbon = 4.032/3.344 = 1

Hydrogen = 6.740/3.344 = 2

The empirical formula will be COH2.

Now that we have the molar mass of the molecular formula, we can calculate for the molecular formula. First, we will begin by discovering the molar mass of the empirical formula, which will be C molar mass x 1 + O molar mass x 1 + H molar mass x 2. That will be equal to 60.949. After that, we can divide the molecular mass by the empirical formula molar mass, giving us approximately 3. Now we will multiply the empirical formula by 3, giving us our molecular formula, which will be equal to C3O3H6.