A nitrogen and oxygen composiiof 4,6g contains 3,2g of oxygen

Question

a) calculate the empirical formula of the compound

Answer 1

To calculate the empirical formula of the compound, we need to know the mass of nitrogen in the compound.

Given:
Mass of oxygen = 3.2g
Mass of nitrogen + Mass of oxygen = 4.6g

To find the mass of nitrogen, we can subtract the mass of oxygen from the total mass:

Mass of nitrogen = Total mass - Mass of oxygen
Mass of nitrogen = 4.6g - 3.2g
Mass of nitrogen = 1.4g

Now that we know the mass of nitrogen and oxygen, we can calculate the molar ratios of nitrogen to oxygen in the compound.

Moles of nitrogen = Mass of nitrogen / Molar mass of nitrogen
Molar mass of nitrogen = 14.01 g/mol (molar mass of nitrogen)
Moles of nitrogen = 1.4g / 14.01 g/mol = 0.0999 mol (rounded to 4 decimal places)

Moles of oxygen = Mass of oxygen / Molar mass of oxygen
Molar mass of oxygen = 16.00 g/mol (molar mass of oxygen)
Moles of oxygen = 3.2g / 16.00 g/mol = 0.2 mol

Now, let's divide the moles of each element by the smallest number of moles to get the empirical formula ratio:

Moles of nitrogen / 0.0999 mol = 0.0999 mol / 0.0999 mol = 1
Moles of oxygen / 0.0999 mol = 0.2 mol / 0.0999 mol = 2

So, the empirical formula of the compound is N1O2.