Question

How do you write a balanced chemical equation for the reaction in which dinitrogen pentoxide gas reacts with water to produce nitric acid? if 208.48 of dinitrogen pentoxide reacts with excess water, how many moles of nitric acid can be produced
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Answer 1

Answer: a)  $N_2O_5(g)+H_2O(g)\rightarrow 2HNO_3(g)$

b)  3.8608 moles

Explanation:

According to the law of conservation of mass, mass can neither be created nor be destroyed. Thus the mass of products has to be equal to the mass of reactants. The number of atoms of each element has to be same on reactant and product side. Thus chemical equations are balanced.

The balanced reaction for dinitrogen pentoxide gas with water to produce nitric acid is:

$N_2O_5(g)+H_2O(g)\rightarrow 2HNO_3(g)$

$\text{Number of moles}=\frac{\text{Given mass}}{\text{Molar mass}}$

$\text{Number of moles of dinitrogen pentoxide}=\frac{208.48g}{108g/mol}=1.9304moles$

According to stoichiometry:-

As nitric acid is the limiting reagent as it limits the formation of product.

1 mole of $N_2O_5$ gives = 2 moles of $HNO_3$

Thus 1.9304 moles  of $N_2O_5$ give =$\frac{2}{1}\times 1.9304=3.8608$ moles of $HNO_3$

Thus 3.8608 moles of $HNO_3$ can be produced.