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A sample is found to be 85.6% carbon and 14.4 % hydrogen.What is the empirical formula?

Question

A sample is found to be 85.6% carbon and 14.4% hydrogen. What is the empirical formula?

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Solution

To find the empirical formula, follow these steps:

  1. Assume that you have 100g of the substance. This means you have 85.6g of Carbon (C) and 14.4g of Hydrogen (H).

  2. Convert the mass of each element to moles. The atomic mass of Carbon is approximately 12.01g/mol and the atomic mass of Hydrogen is approximately 1.01g/mol.

    Moles of C = 85.6g / 12.01g/mol = 7.13 mol Moles of H = 14.4g / 1.01g/mol = 14.26 mol

  3. Divide each mole quantity by the smallest number of moles calculated. In this case, the smallest number is 7.13.

    C: 7.13 mol / 7.13 = 1 H: 14.26 mol / 7.13 = 2

  4. If the numbers obtained are not integers, multiply them by integers (2, 3, 4, etc.) until you get whole numbers. In this case, we already have whole numbers.

So, the empirical formula of the compound is CH2.

This problem has been solved

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