Natural gas (assume pure methane) reacts with oxygen in the air to heat most homes in Alberta. Predict the mass of oxygen gas required to react completely with 1.00L of methane,with all gases measured at SATP.?

1 Answer
Apr 4, 2018

#"2.6 g O"_2"# is needed to react completely with with #"1.00 L CH"_4"#.

Explanation:

#"SATP"# is standard ambient temperature and pressure, which is #"25"^@"C"# or #"298 K"#, and #"1 bar"#.

Balanced equation

#"CH"_4("g") + "2O"_2("g")"##rarr##"CO"_2("g") + "2H"_2"O(g)"#

Determine moles methane #("CH"_4")# using the equation for the ideal gas law.

#PV=nRT#

Known

#P="1 bar"#

#V="1.00 L"#

#R="0.0831447 L bar K"^(-1) "mol"^(-1)"#

#T="298 K"#

Unknown

#n#

Calculate moles #"CH"_4#

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

#n=(PV)/(RT)#

#n=((1color(red)cancel(color(black)("bar")))xx(1.00color(red)cancel(color(black)("L"))))/((0.0831447color(red)cancel(color(black)("L"))color(red)cancel(color(black)("bar")) color(red)cancel(color(black)("K"))^(-1) "mol"^(-1))xx(298color(red)cancel(color(black)("K"))))="0.040360 mol"#

I am keeping some extra digits to reduce rounding errors. The final answer will be rounded to two significant figures.

Moles #"O"_2#

To determine moles #"O"_2#, multiply mol #"CH"_4# by the mol ratio between #"O"_2# and #"CH"_4# in the balanced equation, with mol #"O"_2# in the numerator.

#0.040360color(red)cancel(color(black)("mol CH"_4))xx(2"mol O"_2)/(1color(red)cancel(color(black)("mol CH"_4)))="0.08072 mol O"_2"#

Mass #"O"_2#

To determine the mass of the oxygen, multiply mol #"O"_2# by its molar mass.

#0.08072color(red)cancel(color(black)("mol O"_2))xx(31.998"g O"_2)/(1color(red)cancel(color(black)("mol O"_2)))="2.6 g O"_2"# (rounded to two significant figures)