Question

What is the empirical formula of a compound comprised of 1.8% hydrogen, 56.1% sulfur and 42.1% oxygen?"

Answer 1

The empirical formula of a compound is determined by converting the mass percentages to moles, finding the simplest whole number mole ratio, and adjusting if necessary to arrive at whole numbers which represent the compound's empirical formula.

Step-by-step explanation:

Determining the Empirical Formula

To determine the empirical formula of a compound with given percent composition, we convert the percentages to moles and then find the simplest whole number ratio of the elements. In the example provided where a compound contains 1.8% hydrogen, 56.1% sulfur, and 42.1% oxygen, we assume a 100 g sample for simplicity which gives us 1.8 g of hydrogen, 56.1 g of sulfur, and 42.1 g of oxygen.

Convert the mass of each element to moles by dividing by the atomic mass (H = 1.008 g/mol, S = 32.065 g/mol, O = 15.999 g/mol):

Hydrogen: 1.8 g ÷ 1.008 g/mol = 1.786 moles

Sulfur: 56.1 g ÷ 32.065 g/mol = 1.749 moles

Oxygen: 42.1 g ÷ 15.999 g/mol = 2.631 moles

Determine the simplest whole number ratio by dividing each value by the smallest mole amount calculated:

Adjust the ratio to whole numbers, if necessary, to arrive at the empirical formula.

Applying these steps will yield the empirical formula which represents the simplest ratio of the elements in the compound.

Answer 2

The empirical formula of the compound comprised of 1.8% hydrogen, 56.1% sulfur, and 42.1% oxygen is H2SO3.

Step-by-step explanation:

The empirical formula of a compound can be determined by analyzing the percent composition of each element in the compound. In this case, the compound is reported to contain 1.8% hydrogen, 56.1% sulfur, and 42.1% oxygen.

To determine the empirical formula, we need to convert these percentages to moles. Assume we have 100g of the compound, then we have 1.8g of hydrogen, 56.1g of sulfur, and 42.1g of oxygen.

Next, we calculate the moles of each element by dividing the mass of each element by its molar mass. The molar mass of hydrogen is 1.008 g/mol, sulfur is 32.06 g/mol, and oxygen is 16.00 g/mol.

The moles of hydrogen is 1.8/1.008 = 1.79, the moles of sulfur is 56.1/32.06 = 1.75, and the moles of oxygen is 42.1/16.00 = 2.63.

We then divide the moles of each element by the smallest number of moles to get the simplest whole number ratio. In this case, the smallest number of moles is 1.75, so we divide each number of moles by 1.75.

The simplified ratio is: hydrogen: 1.79/1.75 = 1, sulfur: 1.75/1.75 = 1, oxygen: 2.63/1.75 = 1.5.

Finally, we multiply the ratio by 2 to get whole number values. The empirical formula of the compound is therefore H2SO3.