A 4.43 gram sample of phosphorus was burned in air to produce 10.15 g of an oxide. What's the empirical formula of this compound?
figure the moles of P in 4.43grams
then in the oxide, you have the same moles of P.
Now you have 10.15g -4.43g O
figure those moles.
You now have the mole ratio of P:O
write the formula PxOy
Thank you very much!!
To find the empirical formula of a compound, you need to determine the ratio of the elements present in the compound. In this case, we have a sample of phosphorus (P) that was burned to produce an oxide. We are given the mass of the phosphorus sample (4.43 g) and the mass of the oxide produced (10.15 g).
To start, we need to calculate the mass of oxygen in the oxide. We know that the total mass of the oxide (10.15 g) is the sum of the mass of phosphorus and the mass of oxygen. So, we can subtract the mass of phosphorus from the total mass to find the mass of oxygen.
Mass of oxygen = Total mass of oxide - Mass of phosphorus
Mass of oxygen = 10.15 g - 4.43 g
Mass of oxygen = 5.72 g
Now that we have the masses of phosphorus and oxygen, we need to find the moles of each element. To do this, we divide the mass of each element by their respective atomic masses.
Moles of phosphorus = Mass of phosphorus / Atomic mass of phosphorus
Moles of phosphorus = 4.43 g / 31.0 g/mol (atomic mass of phosphorus)
Moles of oxygen = Mass of oxygen / Atomic mass of oxygen
Moles of oxygen = 5.72 g / 16.0 g/mol (atomic mass of oxygen)
Now, we need to find the mole ratio by dividing each number of moles by the smaller number of moles obtained above. In this case, let's divide by the moles of phosphorus.
Mole ratio of phosphorus = Moles of phosphorus / Moles of phosphorus
Mole ratio of oxygen = Moles of oxygen / Moles of phosphorus
After dividing, we need to round the numbers to the nearest whole number to obtain the whole-number ratio of atoms. This will give us the empirical formula.
Finally, we write the empirical formula using the element symbols and the mole ratio. The empirical formula of the compound is the simplest whole-number ratio of atoms in the compound.
So, let's go ahead and calculate the moles of phosphorus and oxygen, and then find their mole ratio to determine the empirical formula.