What’s the empirical formula of a molecule containing 65.5% carbon, 5.5% hydrogen, and 29.0% oxygen?
1 Answer
Jun 20, 2014
The empirical formula is C₃H₃O.
Assume we have 100 g of the compound.
Then we have 65.5 g of C, 5.5 g of H, and 29.0 g of O.
Moles of C = 65.5 g C ×
Moles of H = 5.5 g H ×
Moles of O = 29.0 g O ×
Moles of C:Moles of H:Moles of O = 5.45:5.5:1.81 = 3.01:3.0:1 ≈ 3:3:1
The empirical formula is C₃H₃O.
Hope this helps.