Question #f2548

1 Answer
anor277
Oct 8, 2016

Approx. 16% with respect to the starting mass of potassium nitrate.

Explanation:

We assume that (under fierce heating), "potassium nitrate" decomposes to give stoichiometric "potassium nitrite" and "dioxygen gas":

KNO_3(s) + Delta rarr KNO_2(s) + 1/2O_2(g)uarr

And thus 1 mol of "potassium nitrate" loses 16*g of oxygen gas upon decomposition. With respect to KNO_3, this represents a mass loss of:

(16*g)/(101.17*g)xx100% ~= 16%

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