Question

Complete combustion of 4.70 g of a hydrocarbon produced 15.1 g of CO₂ and 5.15 g of H₂O. What is the empirical formula for

the hydrocarbon?

Empirical formula:

Answer 1

The empirical formula for the hydrocarbon can be determined from the ratio of the masses of CO₂ and H₂O produced. Since the molar mass of CO₂ is 44 g/mol and the molar mass of H₂O is 18 g/mol, the ratio of moles of CO₂ to moles of H₂O is 44/18, or 2.444. Therefore, the empirical formula of the hydrocarbon is C2H4.

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Answer 2

C2H2

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the empirical formula, we need to first determine the moles of each element in the compound.

Moles of CO2 = 15.1 g / 44.01 g/mol = 0.343 mol

Moles of H2O = 5.15 g / 18.015 g/mol = 0.286 mol

Next, we need to determine the mole ratio of carbon and hydrogen in the compound. We can do this by assuming a total mass of 100 g, which gives us:

Assume 100 g of compound

Mass of carbon = 100 g - 5.15 g - 30.03 g = 64.82 g

Moles of carbon = 64.82 g / 12.01 g/mol = 5.4 mol

Moles of hydrogen = 5.15 g / 1.01 g/mol = 5.1 mol

Next, we need to simplify the mole ratio by dividing by the smallest value (5.1 mol), which gives:

Carbon: 5.4 mol / 5.1 mol = 1.06

Hydrogen: 5.1 mol / 5.1 mol = 1.00

The empirical formula is therefore CH1.06, which we can round to CH.

Since we cannot have a fraction in a chemical formula, we need to multiply the subscripts by a factor that will give us whole numbers. In this case, we can multiply both subscripts by 2 to get a whole number for the carbon subscript:

Empirical formula: C2H2

ALLEN