The odor of pineapple is due to the compound ethyl butyrate, which contains hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen. When 3.70g of ethyl butyrate are burned, 8.41g of carbon dioxide and 3.43g of water are the only products. Determine the empirical formula of ethyl butyrate

Question

The odor of pineapple is due to the compound ethyl butyrate, which contains hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen. When 3.70g of ethyl butyrate are burned, 8.41g of carbon dioxide and 3.43g of water are the only products. Determine the empirical formula of ethyl butyrate

Answer 1

I would convert 8.41 g CO2 to %C.

Then convert 3.43 g hydrogen to %H.
%Oxygen = 100% - %C - %H.

Now take a 100 g sample which will convert percentages to grams; i.e., a 51.0%C, 13%H (numbers I just made up) means 51g C and 13g H.

Convert grams C, H, and O to moles. moles = grams/molar mass.

Now find the molar ratio of the elements to each other with the smallest value being 1.000. The easy way to do that is to divide the smallest value by itself (you know that must be 1.0000000). Divide the other values by the same small number. Round to whole numbers and those values become subscripts for the formula CxHyOz.