Question

A compound containing only carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen is analyzed and found to have the exact same percentage of carbon as it has oxygen. The percentage of hydrogen is known to be 5.988%. What is the empirical formula of this compound? Confirm that your proposed formula has the correct percent composition.

Answer 1

Answer:

Explanation:

Since we aren't told the mass of material we have, let's assume the boss was generous, and precise, and we have 100.00 grams of the mystery compound.  We are told only that hydrogen is 5.988% and that the only other two elements are carbon and oxygen, with equal percentages.  (100%-5.988%)/2 =  47.006% of each.  See the attached table.

We now have the number of grams of each element, so let's convert that into moles of each by dividing the mass by the element's molar mass,  The result in the table is

     Moles

C    3.91

H    5.99

O     2.94

We need whole numbers for the empirical formula, so round to C4H6O3, the empirical formula.  Possibly acetoacetic acid, a metabolite.