What is the molecular formula of a compound with a molar mass of 260.50 g and an empirical formula of SnCl4?

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Answer 1 · 2018-01-20T21:59:19

#"Molecular formula"-=SnCl_4#

How do we know?

Well, the #"molecular formula"# is always a WHOLE NUMBER number multiple of the #"empirical formula"#.

And so #"molecular formula"=nxx"empirical formula"#...

And we are given that the molecular mass is #260.5*g*mol^-1#....and thus...

#260.5*g*mol^-1=nxx{118.7+4xx35.45}*g*mol^-1#...where the given numbers are the atomic masses of tin and chorine respectively...

Clearly....#n=1#......and so the........

#"molecular formula"-="empirical formula"=SnCl_4#...