Question

When 3.62 g of a compound containing carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen were burned completely in air, 5.19 g of CO₂ and 2.83 g of H₂O were produced. What is the empirical formula of the compound?

Answer 1

To find the empirical formula of a compound, convert the mass percentages to moles, then simplify the mole ratio by dividing by the smallest mole value.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the empirical formula of a compound, we need to determine the ratio of the different elements present in the compound. In this case, the given compound contains 40.0% C, 6.71% H, and 53.28% O. To determine the empirical formula, we need to convert these percentages to moles.

First, find the moles of each element by dividing the mass percentage by the molar mass of that element. For carbon, the molar mass is 12.01 g/mol, so the moles of carbon is (40.0/100) * (1 mole/12.01 g) = 0.0333 moles of C. Similarly, the moles of hydrogen is (6.71/100) * (1 mole/1.01 g) = 0.0664 moles of H, and the moles of oxygen is (53.28/100) * (1 mole/16.00 g) = 0.333 moles of O.

Next, divide each of the mole values by the smallest mole value to obtain the simplified mole ratio. In this case, the smallest mole value is 0.0333 moles, so the mole ratio becomes approximately 1 C : 2 H : 10 O. Therefore, the empirical formula of the compound is C1H2O10.