Question

Solid lithium hydroxide is used in a space vehicles to remove exhaled carbon dioxide from the living environment by forming solid lithium carbonate and liquid water. What mass of gaseous carbon dioxide can be absorbed by 1.00 kg of lithium hydroxide?

Answer 1

About 921 grams of carbon dioxide will react woth 1.00 kg of lithium hydroxide.

Explanation:

Start with the equation for the reaction:

`2 "LiOH"+"CO"_2 \rightarrow "Li"_2"CO"_3+"H"_2"O"`

So one mole of lithium hydroxide reacts with one-half mole of carbon dioxide.

By adding up atomic masses we find that one mole of lithium hydroxide weighs about `23.9` grams and one mole of carbon dioxidecweighs about `44.0` grams.

So the ratio of lithium hydroxide to the carbon dioxide it reacts with is `23.9` grams of lithium hydroxide to `22.0` grams of carbon dioxide. Then `1.00` kg `=1.00×10^3` grams of lithium will react with:

`1.00×10^3"g LiOH"×(22.0 "g CO"_2)/(23.9 "g LiOH")=9.21×10^2"g CO"_2`