Question

After combustion with excess oxygen, a 12.501g of a petroleum compound produced 38.196g of carbon dioxide and 18.752g of water. A previous analysis determined that the compound does not contain oxygen. What is the molar mass of the compound?

a) 32.00 g/mol
b) 62.01 g/mol
c) 58.84 g/mol
d) 44.01 g/mol
e) 72.63 g/mol

Answer 1

The molar mass of the given petroleum compound is 58.84 g/mol.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the molar mass of the compound, we first need to calculate the number of moles of carbon dioxide and water produced. The molar mass of carbon dioxide is 44.01 g/mol and the molar mass of water is 18.02 g/mol. From the given masses of carbon dioxide and water, we can calculate the number of moles of each compound. Then, we can determine the number of moles of carbon and hydrogen in the original sample using the ratios between the number of moles of each compound and the number of carbon and hydrogen atoms present. Finally, we can calculate the molar mass of the compound by dividing the mass of the sample by the number of moles of the compound. The molar mass of the compound is 58.84 g/mol (option c).