What is the empirical of compound (X) going through the following decomposition reaction?
X = sulfur + oxygen + nitrogen
sulfur = 21 gr
oxygen = 69.70gr
nitrogen = 6.10gr
Convert g to moles. moles = grams/molar mass.
Then find the ratio of the elements to each other with the smallest number being 1.00. The easy way to do that is to divide the smallest number by itself followed by dividing all of the other numbers by the same small number. Then round to whole numbers EXCEPT don't round more than 0.1 or so. What I mean by that is that if you come up with 1.5 obviously that number could be multiplied by a whole number (2) to obtain 3.
All of the other numbers would be multiplied by 2 also. Post your workif you get stuck.
Would the answer to the X = S2O10N
To find the empirical formula of compound X, we need to determine the ratio of elements present in the compound.
1. Start by converting the given mass of each element to moles using their molar masses:
- sulfur (S): 21 g × (1 mol/32.07 g) = 0.655 mol
- oxygen (O): 69.70 g × (1 mol/16.00 g) = 4.356 mol
- nitrogen (N): 6.10 g × (1 mol/14.01 g) = 0.436 mol
2. Divide each element's moles by the smallest number of moles to obtain the simplest ratio:
- sulfur: 0.655 mol / 0.436 mol ≈ 1.50 (rounded to two decimal places)
- oxygen: 4.356 mol / 0.436 mol = 10.00
- nitrogen: 0.436 mol / 0.436 mol = 1.00
3. Since the goal is to obtain whole numbers, we need to round the ratios to the nearest whole number. Therefore, the empirical formula of compound X is:
- sulfur: 1
- oxygen: 10
- nitrogen: 1
The empirical formula of compound X is S1O10N1 or simply SON.