A 34.0 liter container holds 305 grams of oxygen gas at 22 degrees C. How many grams of oxygen gas must be released to reduce the pressure to 1.15 ATM if the temperature remains constant?

Thank you!

1 Answer
Mar 14, 2018

Under the conditions given, #"253 g O"_2"# need to be released to reduce the pressure to #"1.15 atm"#.

Explanation:

We need to determine the moles #"O"_2"# under the conditions given. Then we need to determine the mass of #"O"_2"# of the calculated moles. Then we will subtract the calculated mass of #"O"_2"# from #"305 g O"_2"# to determine the mass of #"O"_2"# that must be released.

First use the equation for the ideal gas law to determines moles #"O"_2"# at #1.15"atm"#:

#PV=nRT,#

where:

#P# is pressure, #V# is volume, #n# is moles, #R# is the gas constant, and #T# is temperature in Kelvins.

Organize the data:

Known/Given

#P="1.15 atm"#

#V="34.0 L"#

#R="0.0820575 L atm K"^(-1) "mol"^(-1)"#

#T="22"^@"C + 273.15 = 295 K"#

Unknown

#n#

Determine moles #"O"_2"#.

Rearrange the equation to isolate #n#. Plug in the known values and solve.

#n=(PV)/(RT)#**

#n=(1.15color(red)cancel(color(black)("atm"))xx34.0color(red)cancel(color(black)("L")))/(0.0820575 color(red)cancel(color(black)("L")) color(red)cancel(color(black)("atm")) color(red)cancel(color(black)("K"))^(-1) "mol"^(-1)xx295color(red)cancel(color(black)("K")))="1.6152 mol O"_2"#

(I am keeping some guard digits to reduce rounding errors.)

Convert moles #"O"_2"# to mass #"O"_2"#.

Multiply moles #"O"_2"# by its molar mass #("31.998 g/mol")#.

#1.6152color(red)cancel(color(black)("mol O"_2))xx(31.998"g O"_2)/(1color(red)cancel(color(black)("mol O"_2)))="51.7 g O"_2"# (rounded to three significant figures)

The amount of #"O"_2"# that must be released:

#"305 g O"_2-"51.7 g O"_2"= 253 g O"_2"# (rounded to a whole number)

Under the conditions given, #"253 g O"_2"# need to be released to reduce the pressure to #"1.15 atm"#.