Question

How do I find the density of pentadecane?

Answer 1

If you have an account on scifinder or if you can get one as a student, you would find the density listed as:

`"0.7687 g/cm"^3` at `20^@ "C"`

I use this as a university student and I find it useful and reliable, especially since they even give melting point and boiling point ranges determined by multiple sources, not just singular values.

---

Alternatively, looking up the "MSDS" (more recently changed to just an SDS) is always a good idea. Besides on Sigma Aldrich, I found an SDS for pentadecane here. It shows:

`"0.769 g/cm"^3` at `20^@ "C"`

And remember that it's a good idea to check multiple sources to see if their densities agree. I found other sources that had "relative" densities like `0.77` and `0.66`, and I just don't trust that that's correct because it can be known to greater certainty than that.