Question

A compound is 52.0% zinc 9.6% carbon and 38.4% oxygen. Calculate the empirical formula of the compound.

Answer 1

Answer:

So a compound is 52% Zinc(Zn), 9.6% Carbon(C), and 38.4% Oxygen (O). Let’s first start off by assuming that we have 100 g of this compound. This means that we have 52 g of Zinc, 9.6 g of Carbon, and 38.4 g of Oxygen.Zinc = 65.38 g/molCarbon = 12 g/molOxygen = 16 g/molThis means we have:52 g of Zn(1 mol Zn/65.38 g of Zn) ≈0.8 mol of Zn.9.6 g of C(1 mol C/12 g of C) = 0.8 mol of C38.4 g of O(1 mol of O/16 g of O) = 2.4 mol of O.

Explanation:

What we want to do next is divide each element by the common factor of all of them, which is 0.8. In most cases, you divide each element by the element with the least amount of moles. After we divide each by 0.8, you’ll notice you have 1 Zn, 1 C, and 3 O. This gives you the empirical formula of ZnCO3, or Zinc Carbonate.