Question

A compound is found to contain 9.227 % boron and 90.77 % chlorine by mass. What is the empirical formula for this compound?

Answer 1

Empirical formula of a compound means that it provides simplest ratio of whole number.

Step-by-step explanation:

Mass of boron and chlorine is 9.224% and 90.74%

Answer 2

To find the empirical formula, we need to determine the simplest whole-number ratio of boron to chlorine atoms in the compound.

Assuming a 100 g sample of the compound, we can convert the mass percentages to masses in grams:

- 9.227 g B
- 90.77 g Cl

Next, we need to convert these masses to moles using the atomic masses of the elements:

- B: 10.81 g/mol
- Cl: 35.45 g/mol

- 9.227 g B ÷ 10.81 g/mol = 0.853 mol B
- 90.77 g Cl ÷ 35.45 g/mol = 2.562 mol Cl

Now we need to divide both mole values by the smaller of the two, which is 0.853 mol:

- 0.853 mol B ÷ 0.853 mol = 1.000 mol B
- 2.562 mol Cl ÷ 0.853 mol = 3.000 mol Cl

This gives us a B:Cl ratio of 1:3. The empirical formula for the compound is therefore BCl3.