An unknown compound has a formula of CxHyOz. You burn 0.1523 g of the compound and isolate 0.3718 g of CO2, and 0.1522 g of H2O. What is the empirical formula of the compound? If the molar mass is 72.1 g/mol what is the molecular formula?

Convert 0.3718 g CO2 to g carbon, then find percent C = (mass C/mass sample) * 100 = ??

Same process convert 0.1522 g H2O to grams hydrogen (atoms) and find percent H.

Find percent oxygen by
100% - percent H = percent C

Take a 100 g sample which will give you the percents of the three elements as grams; i.e., 27.0 %C and 18.0%H (numbers I just made up) will give 27.0 g C and 18.0g H.
Find moles C, H, and O by dividing the grams by the molar mass C, H, or O.

Now find the molar ratio of the three elements to each other with the smalles value being 1.00. The easy way to do this is to divide the smallest number by itself (which, of course, will be 1.0000000). Then divide the other number by the same small number, round to whole numbers and substitute into the CxHyOz. That will give you the emprical formula.

To find the molecular formula take the formula mass of the empirical formula and divide that into 72. The resultant will tell you how many units of the empirical formula are in the molecular formula.
Post your work if you get stuck.

C6HO2

To find the empirical formula of the compound, we need to determine the ratio of the elements present in it. Let's start by finding the moles of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) in the given samples.

1. Calculate the moles of CO2:
- The molar mass of CO2 (carbon dioxide) is 44.01 g/mol.
- Moles of CO2 = Mass of CO2 / Molar mass of CO2 = 0.3718 g / 44.01 g/mol

2. Calculate the moles of H2O:
- The molar mass of H2O (water) is 18.02 g/mol.
- Moles of H2O = Mass of H2O / Molar mass of H2O = 0.1522 g / 18.02 g/mol

3. Now, we can determine the moles of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen individually. Since the empirical formula gives the simplest whole number ratio, we will divide the moles obtained in steps 1 and 2 by their smallest value to get the ratios.

4. Divide the mole values from step 1 and step 2 by the smallest value obtained:
- Let's assume the moles of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen are nC, nH, and nO, respectively (where nC and nH are smallest).

nC = Moles of CO2 / Smallest value
nH = Moles of H2O / Smallest value
nO = 0 (We can treat oxygen as the remaining element in the compound)

5. Now, calculate the empirical formula:
- Since oxygen (O) is the remaining element in the compound and the ratios are given as whole numbers, we can directly determine the empirical formula.
- Let's assume the values of nC and nH are x and y, respectively.

The empirical formula of the compound is CxHyOz.

To determine the molecular formula, we need the molar mass of the compound. Given that the molar mass is 72.1 g/mol, we can compare it with the empirical formula to find the factor by which the empirical formula needs to be multiplied to get the molecular formula.

1. Calculate the empirical mass of the empirical formula:
- Empirical mass = (Atomic mass of carbon x x) + (Atomic mass of hydrogen x y) + (Atomic mass of oxygen x z)

2. Divide the molar mass by the empirical mass to find the factor by which the empirical formula needs to be multiplied:
- Factor = Molar mass / Empirical mass

3. Finally, multiply each subscript of the empirical formula by the factor obtained in step 2 to find the molecular formula:
- Molecular formula = (CxHyOz) * Factor

By following these steps, we can determine both the empirical and molecular formulas of the compound.