Question

Nitric acid (HNO3) is used in the production of fertilizers. Calculate the maximum mass, in tonnes, of nitric acid that could be produced in this reaction from 11.5 tonnes of nitrogen dioxide. [1 tonne = 1.0 × 10^6 g]

3NO2 + H2O → 2HNO3 + NO
A) 3.83 tonnes
B) 7.66 tonnes
C) 15.32 tonnes
D) 30.64 tonnes

Answer 1

The maximum mass of nitric acid that can be produced from 11.5 tonnes of nitrogen dioxide is approximately 7.66 tonnes.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the maximum mass of nitric acid (HNO3) that can be produced from a given mass of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), we need to use the stoichiometry of the balanced chemical equation.

From the balanced equation: 3 NO2 + H2O → 2 HNO3 + NO, we can see that for every 3 mol of NO2, we can produce 2 mol of HNO3.

To find the mass of HNO3, we need to convert the given mass of NO2 to mol using molar mass and then convert mol of NO2 to mol of HNO3 using the stoichiometric ratio.

Finally, we can convert the mol of HNO3 to mass in tonnes using the given conversion factor of 1 tonne = 1.0 × 10^6 g.

Calculating this, we find that the maximum mass of nitric acid (HNO3) that could be produced from 11.5 tonnes of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is approximately 7.66 tonnes (or 7,660 kg), which corresponds to option B.