An analysis of an unknown compound found it contained 40 g potassium, 52 g chromium and 56 g of oxygen.
a) What is the empirical formula for this compound? Show the work you did to determine the formula.
b) What type of compound is it, ionic, covalent or a combination of both? Explain your choice.
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Convert grams to moles. moles = grams/molar mass
Then find the molar ratio of the elements to each other with the smallest being 1.000. The easy way of doing that is to divide the smallest number by itself. Divide the other numbers by the same smaller number. I think you will need to look for a multiplier so that all of the numbers come out close to whole numbers and I'm guessing the multiplier is 2.
Post your work if you get stuck.
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a) To determine the empirical formula of a compound, we need to find the simplest whole number ratio of the elements present in the compound.
First, let's calculate the number of moles for each element:
- Potassium (K): 40 g / molar mass of K = 40 g / 39.10 g/mol ≈ 1.02 mol
- Chromium (Cr): 52 g / molar mass of Cr = 52 g / 52.00 g/mol = 1.00 mol
- Oxygen (O): 56 g / molar mass of O = 56 g / 16.00 g/mol = 3.50 mol
Next, we need to divide the number of moles of each element by the smallest number of moles. In this case, the smallest number of moles is 1.00 mol (from chromium).
- Potassium: 1.02 mol / 1.00 mol ≈ 1.02
- Chromium: 1.00 mol / 1.00 mol = 1
- Oxygen: 3.50 mol / 1.00 mol = 3.50
Since we need to have whole numbers, we can round the values to the nearest whole number:
- Potassium: 1
- Chromium: 1
- Oxygen: 4
Therefore, the empirical formula for this compound is KCrO4.
b) The compound KCrO4 consists of a metal (potassium) and a nonmetal (chromium and oxygen). Compounds that are made up of a metal and a nonmetal are typically ionic compounds. In ionic compounds, electrons are transferred from the metal to the nonmetal, resulting in the formation of positive and negative ions that are strongly attracted to each other.
Hence, the compound KCrO4 is an ionic compound.