There are three major steps for finding an empirical formula from a combustion reaction. 1.) Determine the grams of carbon and hydrogen from the given data.
C: 23.98 g x (12.011 g / 44.01 g) = 6.54 g C H: 4.91 g x (2.0158 g / 18.02 g) = 0.55 g H Determine the grams of oxygen in the sample by subtracting the mass of the compound given from the total mass solved earlier. O: 10.0 - (6.54 + 0.55) = 2.91 g O
2) Convert the values in step 1 to moles.
C: 6.54 g / 12.01 g / mol = 0.54 mol H: 0.55 g / 1.01 g/mol = 0.54 mol O: 2.91 g / 16.00 g/mol = 0.18 mol
3) Divide each by the lowest value calculated in step 2