Question

Nitroglycerin is a dangerous powerful explosive that violently decomposes when it is shaken or dropped. The Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) founded the Nobel Prizes with a fortune he made by inventing dynamite, a mixture of nitroglycerin and inert ingredients that was safe to handle. 1. Write a balanced chemical equation, including physical state symbols, for the decomposition of liquid nitroglycerin () into gaseous dinitrogen, gaseous dioxygen, gaseous water and gaseous carbon dioxide. 2. Suppose of carbon dioxide gas are produced by this reaction, at a temperature of and pressure of exactly . Calculate the mass of nitroglycerin that must have reacted. Be sure your answer has the correct number of significant digits.

Answer 1

4 C3H5N3O9 ------> 6N2 + O2 + 10H2O + 12CO2

Step-by-step explanation:

Nitroglycerin has a chemical formula C3H5N3O9. The balanced chemical equation is as follows:

4 C3H5N3O9 ------> 6N2 + O2 + 10H2O + 12CO2

We suppose that in a reaction, 44g of carbon dioxide is produced. The mass of nitroglycerin that must have reacted will be calculated as under:

Molecular mass of Nitroglycerin = 227g/mol

Molecular mass of Carbon dioxide = 44g/mol

No. of moles of carbon dioxide produced = 44/44 = 1 mole produced.

Now, from balanced chemical equation, we can see that

12 moles of carbon dioxide are produced by = 4 moles of nitroglycerin.

1 mole of carbon dioxide is produced by = 4/12 = 1/3 moles of nitroglycerin.

Mass of nitroglycerin which produced 1 mole of carbon dioxide = 1/3 x 227 = 75.666 grams.