Question

A compound containing carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen was found to contain 29.6% carbon, 11.2% hydrogen, and 59.2% oxygen. The molecular molar mass was determined to be 243.3 g/mol. What would be the empirical formula of the molecule?

Answer 1

To find the empirical formula, convert the masses of each element to moles and determine the molar ratio. The empirical formula of the compound is C2H5O.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the empirical formula of the compound, we need to determine the ratio of atoms in the compound. We can start by assuming that we have 100g of the compound, then convert the mass of each element to moles. The molar ratio of the elements can be determined by dividing the number of moles of each element by the smallest number of moles. In this case, we divide the moles of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen by the moles of carbon. After simplifying the ratio, the empirical formula is C2H5O.