Hi, I posted a question yesterday :

Question

A compound contains only carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. Combustion of 0.157 of the compound produced 0.213g CO2 and 0.0310 g H20. In another experiment, it is found that 0.103g of the compound produces 0.0230 g NH3. What is the empirical formula of the compound?

Chemistry - DrBob222, Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 9:24pm
I would convert 0.213g CO2 to g C, then to %C. Convert 0.0310 g H2O to grams H, then top %H. Add g H to g C and subtract from 0.157 to obtain g O, and convert to %O. Then for the separate run on N, convert g NH3 to g N and to %N.
Take a 100 g sample and that will provide you with those percentages C, H, N, O. (For example, 60% C will become 60.0 g C).
...

I have a question about converting CO2 to C.

This is what I tried...
% of C in CO2
12.01/44.01 x 100 = 27.1%

then, 0.213 g of CO2 x 27.1 % of C
=0.058149
Am I doing this correctly?

Answer 1

Yes, that's correct. And you will need that answer to obtain grams oxygen in the compound. You will need to convert that g C to percent C, also. To do that, simply (g carbon/0.157)*100 = ??