How do I find the ratios between the number of moles of each element to determine the formula of the compound?
1 Answer
You can use the mole ratio of elements in a compound to determine the empirical formula of a compound.
For example - analysis of a sample of water would reveal that the number of moles of hydrogen atoms present in the sample is twice the number of moles of oxygen atoms in the sample. This lets us conclude that the empirical formula of water is
*Note - sometimes the empirical formula will not always be the chemical formula for a compound. For example, hydrogen peroxide has an empirical formula of HO, but a chemical formula of
Here is a video which shows how to calculate an empirical formula from experimental data for a hydrocarbon compound.
Video from: Noel Pauller
And here is a video which discusses how empirical formulas
Video from: Noel Pauller
Hope this helps!
