Question

0.1156 g CxHyNz reacts with oxygen, O₂, to give 0.1638 g CO₂, 0.1676 g H₂O, and N₂. Find the empirical formula of the organic compound.CxHyNz + O₂ → CO₂ + H₂O + N₂ To determine the empirical formula you should know how much carbon, hydrogen, & nitrogen are each present in the sample. Follow the steps: Use dimensional analyses here.

Determine how much C is in CO₂ then convert to mole.

Answer 1

The empirical formula of the compound is determined by calculating the moles of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen from the masses of CO2 and H2O produced and the initial mass of the compound, then expressing these in the simplest whole number ratio.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine the empirical formula of the organic compound CxHyNz, we must first calculate the moles of carbon from the given mass of CO2. Since CO2 contains one atom of carbon per molecule, we can use molar masses to find out how much carbon is present. From the mass of CO2 produced, 0.1638 g, we can calculate the moles of carbon as this represents the molar mass of CO2 (44.01 g/mol) divided into the mass produced.

Similarly, we can calculate the amount of hydrogen from the mass of H2O produced. Since each molecule of H2O contains two atoms of hydrogen, we can convert the mass of water (0.1676 g) to moles of hydrogen by using the molar mass of H2O (18.02 g/mol).

To find the moles of nitrogen, we subtract the masses of carbon and hydrogen (found in the CO2 and H2O) from the initial mass of the compound. The difference will give us the mass of nitrogen, which we can convert to moles using the molar mass of nitrogen (14.01 g/mol).

With the moles of C, H, and N determined, we can find their simplest ratio to write the empirical formula for the compound CxHyNz.