Final answer:
To find the empirical formula of naphthalene, calculate the moles of carbon from CO2 and hydrogen from H2O, determine the simplest whole number ratio, and conclude that the empirical formula is C5H4.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the empirical formula for naphthalene from combustion analysis, we will follow these steps:
- From the 8.80 g of CO2, we can calculate the moles of carbon because each mole of CO2 contains one mole of carbon. We do this by dividing the mass of CO2 by its molar mass (44.01 g/mol) and then using Avogadro's number (6.022 × 10^23) for the number of atoms in a mole.
- Similarly, from the 1.44 g of H2O produced, we can find the moles of hydrogen by dividing the mass of H2O by its molar mass (18.02 g/mol), and multiplying by 2 because there are two atoms of hydrogen in each molecule of water.
- With the moles of each element calculated, divide both by the smallest of the two to find the ratio of carbon to hydrogen. If the ratio is not a whole number, it should be multiplied by an appropriate factor (often a small integer) to convert it into a whole number ratio. This ratio will yield the empirical formula of naphthalene.
In this case, the empirical formula of naphthalene is deduced to be C5H4.