Final answer:
To find the number of moles of oxygen in the sample of ammonium nitrate, you need to use the balanced chemical equation for the decomposition of ammonium nitrate and determine the mole ratio between nitrogen and oxygen.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question requires finding the number of moles of oxygen in a sample of ammonium nitrate with 2.50 moles of nitrogen. By using the balanced chemical equation for the decomposition of ammonium nitrate, we can determine the mole ratio between nitrogen and oxygen. In the equation:
NH4NO3 → N2O + 2H2O
We can see that 1 mole of ammonium nitrate produces 2 moles of water, which means that 2 moles of oxygen are produced as well. Given that there are 2.50 moles of nitrogen, there will be 5.00 moles of oxygen in the sample of ammonium nitrate.
The question is asking how many moles of oxygen are in a sample of ammonium nitrate with 2.50 moles of nitrogen. To answer this, we need to look at the chemical formula of ammonium nitrate, which is NH4NO3. In this formula, each molecule contains one atom of nitrogen in the ammonium ion (NH4+) and one atom of nitrogen in the nitrate ion (NO3−). This means in total, there are two atoms of nitrogen per molecule of ammonium nitrate. So, for every mole of ammonium nitrate, there are two moles of nitrogen atoms. If you have 2.50 moles of nitrogen, that correlates to 1.25 moles of ammonium nitrate because 2.50 moles N × (1 mole NH4NO3 / 2 moles N) = 1.25 moles NH4NO3.
Since each molecule of ammonium nitrate has three oxygen atoms (in the nitrate ion), the moles of oxygen would be three times the moles of ammonium nitrate: 1.25 moles NH4NO3 × 3 moles O = 3.75 moles of oxygen.