Question

A sample of an ionic compound containing iron and chlorine is analyzed and found to have a molar mass of 126.8 g/mol. what is the charge of the iron in this compound?

Answer 1

The charge of iron in the compound is 2+ and the compound is iron (II) chloride which can be represented using the chemical formula FeCl₂.

FURTHER EXPLANATION

To answer this problem, some key facts to recall are:

1. In the chemical formula of ionic compounds, the charge of the metal becomes the subscript of the nonmetal and the charge of the nonmetal is used as the subscript of the metal.
2. The molar mass is the mass of one mole of a substance. This is equal to the combined masses of the elements that make up the chemical compound.

In this question, the metal is iron (Fe) with its charge unknown so it can be denoted as Feˣ⁺, and the nonmetal is chlorine (Cl) which is known to have a charge of 1-. By crisscross method, the chemical formula of the compound may be written as FeClₙ.

Since the molar mass of the compound is given, the subscript n, may be determined by getting the sum of the masses of the elements that make up the substance:

molar mass of FeClₙ.=  molar mass of Fe + n{molar mass of Cl}

126.8 g/mol = 55.845 g/mol + n(35.45 g/mol)

n = 2.00

The charge, therefore, of iron in the compound is 2+. The chemical formula of iron (II) chloride is written as FeCl₂.

LEARN MORE

1. Learn more about Empirical Formula brainly.com/question/8516072
2. Learn more about Naming Compounds brainly.com/question/8968140
3. Learn more about Mass Percent brainly.com/question/11042307

Keywords: molar mass, compound, chemical formula, ionic compound

Answer 2

Answer is: the charge of the iron in this compound is +2.
Atomic mass of iron is 55,8 g/mol.
Atomic mass of chlorine is 35,5 g/mol.
If compound is FeCl, molar mass would be 55,8 g/mol + 35,5 g/mol = 91,3 g/mo, that is not correct.
If compound is FeCl₂, malar mass of compound would be:
55,8 g/mol + 2·35,5 g/mol = 126,8 g/mol, that is correct.
Oxaidation number of chlorine is -1.