Question

I just completed a project for my chemistry class and just want to go over it. I had to find a household product and find the name of elements in it. I used the product B. C. powder, which has Aspirin C9H804. it also have 65 mg of caffeine. I dont know if there is a formula for caffeine. Is there one?2) What is the formula name when you have Carbon with 9 atoms, Hydrogen with 8 atoms and Oxygen when you have 4 atoms. I dont know if I suppose to use the word (nonane) and I definitely don't know what words to describe Hyodrogen8 and Oxygen 4. Can you explain?3) Is this compound considered a molecular compound? That was my answer When it asked what type of element ( atomic or molecular) or compound Molecular or ionic.

Answer 1

The question requires us to provide the name of two compounds in the product B. C. powder: aspirin and caffeine. It also requires us to determine if these compounds are considered molecular compounds.

The chemical formula of aspirin, also know as acetylsalicylic acid, is C9H8O4. It presents a complex structure with different chemical functions (benzene ring, carboxylic acid and esther) and its structure is represented in the image below:

Asprin is usually knwon as acetylsalicylic acid, but its official name is 2-acetoxybenzoic acid. (note that we don't use the name "nonane", despite the structure presenting 9 C atoms, because the structure does not correspond to a simple alkane).

Caffeine is also a known compound commonly present in many daily items (coffee and tea, for example). It presents the molecular formula C8H10N4O2 and its atoms are distributed in a complex structure, represented in the following image:

Although it is usually known as caffeine, the official name of this structure is 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine or 3,7-dihydro-1,3,7-trimethyl-1H-purine-2,6-dione. It is also known as trimethylxanthine.

Both caffeine and aspirin are molecular compounds - we can explain it by the type of bonding between the atoms, which is covalent.