Question

Question #13068

Answer 1

The volume occupied by an oxygen molecule at STP is `"37.71 nm"^3`.

Explanation:

STP is defined as a temperature of 0 °C and a pressure of 1 bar.

At STP, 1 mol of oxygen occupies `"22.71 dm"^3`.

The average volume occupied by a molecule is

`V = (22.71 color(white)(l) "dm"^3)/(6.022 × 10^23 color(white)(l)"molecules") = 3.771 × 10^"-23"color(white)(l) "dm"^3"/molecule"`

`3.771 × 10^"-23" color(red)(cancel(color(black)("dm"^3))) × ((1 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("m"))))/(1 0color(red)(cancel(color(black)("dm")))))^3 × ((10^9color(white)(l) "nm")/(1 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("m")))))^3 = "37.71 nm"^3`

An oxygen molecule is so small that 99.9 % of this volume is empty space.