Question

The reusable booster rockets of the u.s. space shuttle employ a mixture of aluminum and ammonium perchlorate for fuel. a possible equation for this reaction is3al1s213nh4clo41s2hal2o31s21alcl31s213no1g216h2o1g2what mass of nh4clo4 should be used in the fuel mixture for every kilogram of al?

Answer 1

Answer:- 4.35 kg of ammonium perchlorate are required for every kg of Al.

Solution:- It's a stoichiometry problem. The balanced equation for this problem is....

$3Al + 3NH_4ClO_4\rightarrow Al_2O_3 + AlCl_3 + 3NO + 6H_2O$

From balanced equation, there is 3:3 that is 1:1 mol ratio between aluminum and ammonium perchlorate.

Given mass of Al is 1 kg and we are asked to calculate the mass of ammonium perchlorate for it.

Molar mass of Al is 26.98 g/mol and molar mass of ammonium perchlorate is 117.49 g/mol.

1 kg = 1000 g

Grams of Al are converted to moles and then moles of ammonium perchlorate are calculated using mol ratio and finally on multiplying with molar mass we get the mass of ammonium perchlorate.

1000 g Al x (1mol Al/26.98 g Al) (1mol ammonium perchlorate/1mol Al) (117.49 g ammonium perchlorate/1mol ammonium perchlorate)

= 4354.7 g that is 4.35 kg of ammonium perchlorate