Final answer:
The empirical formula for a compound with 32% carbon, 42.66% oxygen, 18.67% nitrogen, and 6.67% hydrogen is C2H5NO2, determined by converting mass percentages to moles and then finding the simplest whole number mole ratio of the elements.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine the empirical formula of a compound, we can use the percentages given to figure out the mole ratio of the elements in the compound. For a compound containing 32% carbon (C), 42.66% oxygen (O), 18.67% nitrogen (N), and 6.67% hydrogen (H), we assume a 100 g sample to find the number of moles of each element:
- Carbon: 32 g C × (1 mol C / 12.01 g C) = 2.666 moles C
- Oxygen: 42.66 g O × (1 mol O / 16.00 g O) = 2.666 moles O
- Nitrogen: 18.67 g N × (1 mol N / 14.01 g N) = 1.333 moles N
- Hydrogen: 6.67 g H × (1 mol H / 1.008 g H) = 6.615 moles H
Next, we divide by the smallest mole value to get a simple whole-number ratio:
- C: 2.666 / 1.333 = 2
- O: 2.666 / 1.333 = 2
- N: 1.333 / 1.333 = 1
- H: 6.615 / 1.333 = 5
Thus, the empirical formula for the compound is C2H5NO2.