A student needed to determine the percent composition of a mixture that contained fluorene and benzoic acid. The student took 283 mg of the mixture and used the extraction method to separate the components. Then both compounds were recrystallized and dried. The experiment produced 141 mg of fluorene and 105 mg of benzoic acid. Calculate the percent composition of the mixture.
Fluorene = _____%
Benzoic acid = ______%
In order to find the percent composition of fluorene, would I just divide 105 by 283 and then multiply by 100 to get the answer?
Any help would be appreciated! :D
That should give you the percent fluorene and a similar process will calculate percent benzoic acid; however, note that 105 + 141 is not = to 283 mg. Something must be missing from the problem.
1. The sample contained something other than fluorene and benzoic acid, or
2. We assume the extra material was lost during the extraction, either in the aqueous phase or the organic phase (or both) in which case the percent calculated is too low for either/both materials.
To calculate the percent composition of the mixture, you need to calculate the mass of each compound relative to the total mass of the mixture.
1. Start by calculating the total mass of the mixture:
Total mass = mass of fluorene + mass of benzoic acid
= 141 mg + 105 mg
= 246 mg
2. To find the percent composition of fluorene, divide the mass of fluorene by the total mass of the mixture and multiply by 100:
Percent composition of fluorene = (mass of fluorene / total mass) * 100
= (141 mg / 246 mg) * 100
= 57.32%
3. Similarly, to find the percent composition of benzoic acid, divide the mass of benzoic acid by the total mass of the mixture and multiply by 100:
Percent composition of benzoic acid = (mass of benzoic acid / total mass) * 100
= (105 mg / 246 mg) * 100
= 42.68%
Therefore, the percent composition of the mixture is:
Fluorene = 57.32%
Benzoic acid = 42.68%
To calculate the percent composition of the mixture, you need to divide the mass of each component by the total mass of the mixture and then multiply by 100.
First, let's calculate the percent composition of fluorene:
Mass of fluorene = 141 mg
Percent composition of fluorene = (Mass of fluorene / Mass of mixture) x 100
= (141 mg / 283 mg) x 100
= 49.82%
Therefore, the percent composition of fluorene in the mixture is approximately 49.82%.
Now, let's calculate the percent composition of benzoic acid:
Mass of benzoic acid = 105 mg
Percent composition of benzoic acid = (Mass of benzoic acid / Mass of mixture) x 100
= (105 mg / 283 mg) x 100
= 37.08%
Therefore, the percent composition of benzoic acid in the mixture is approximately 37.08%.