How do you calculate the empirical formula of a hydrocarbon?

1 Answer
anor277
Jul 13, 2017

How else but by experiment......?

Explanation:

And #"empirical"# actually means #"experimental"#. And thus you take a known mass of hydrocarbon, combust it in a furnace, and the volumes of carbon dioxide and water that are evolved in the combustion may be accurately measured. See here. And from the #%C#, #%H#, #%N# figures we can get an #"empirical formula"#, and given a measurement of molecular weight, we can calculate a #"molecular formula."#

See here for another example. See here for the process of combustion.

Related questions
See all questions in Empirical and Molecular Formulas
Impact of this question
10640 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License