a compound containing only carbon and hydrogen consists of 362 g of C and 30.1 g of H. what is the empirical formula of the compound?
Convert g to moles, then find the ratio of the moles C to moles H. The easy way to find the ratio is to divide the smaller value of moles by itself thus ensuring that value is 1.000. Then divide the other value by the same small number. Post your work if you get stuck.
To determine the empirical formula of a compound, we need to find the ratio of the elements present in the compound.
To calculate the empirical formula, we need to follow these steps:
1. Convert the given masses of carbon (C) and hydrogen (H) to moles:
- Moles of C = mass of C / molar mass of C
- Moles of H = mass of H / molar mass of H
2. Calculate the molar ratio of C to H by dividing the number of moles of each element by the smaller number of moles calculated.
3. Multiply all the subscripts in the ratio by a whole number to obtain simple whole number ratios, if necessary.
Let's follow these steps to find the empirical formula:
1. Calculate the molar masses of C and H:
- The molar mass of C = 12.01 g/mol
- The molar mass of H = 1.008 g/mol
2. Convert the given masses to moles:
- Moles of C = 362 g / 12.01 g/mol ≈ 30.14 mol
- Moles of H = 30.1 g / 1.008 g/mol ≈ 29.82 mol
3. Find the molar ratio by dividing the moles of both elements by the smaller number of moles:
- Moles ratio: C : H ≈ 30.14 mol : 29.82 mol
- Simplifying the ratio by dividing both by 29.82:
- C : H ≈ 1.01 : 1
4. The empirical formula is obtained by taking the subscripts as the simplified ratio found in step 3. Therefore, the empirical formula of the compound is CH.
So, the empirical formula of the compound composed of 362 g of carbon and 30.1 g of hydrogen is CH.