Question

Complete combustion of 8.60 g of a hydrocarbon produced 26.5 g of CO2 and 12.2 g of H2O. What is the empirical formula for the hydrocarbon?

Answer 1

The empirical formula of the hydrocarbon is $C_2H_3$ if combustion of 8.60 g of a hydrocarbon produced 26.5 g of $CO_2$ and 12.2 g of $H_2O$.

What is an empirical formula?

A chemical formula showing the simplest ratio of elements in a compound rather than the total number of atoms in the molecule $CH_2O$ is the empirical formula for glucose.

1 mole of carbon dioxide contains a mass of 44 g, out of which 12 g are carbon.

Hence, in this case the mass of carbon in 8.46 g of $CO_2$:

($\frac{12}{44}$) × 8.46 = 2.3073 g

1 mole of water contains 18 g, out of which 2 g is hydrogen;

Therefore, 2.6 g of water contains;

($\frac{2}{18}$ × 2.6 = 0.2889 g of hydrogen.

Therefore, with the amount of carbon and hydrogen from the hydrocarbon, we can calculate the empirical formula.

We first calculate the number of moles of each,

Carbon = $\frac{2.3073}{12}$  = 0.1923 moles

Hydrogen = $\frac{0.2889}{1}$= 0.2889 moles

Then, we calculate the ratio of Carbon to hydrogen by dividing by the smallest number value;

            Carbon : Hydrogen

               $\frac{0.1923}{0.1923}$ : $\frac{0.2889}{0.1923}$

                      1 :  1.5

                     (1 : 1.5) 2

                    = 2 : 3

Hence, the empirical formula of the hydrocarbon is $C_2H_3$.

Learn  more about the empirical formula here:

brainly.com/question/14044066

#SPJ1