Answer to Question #181377 in Organic Chemistry for Dorathy Ekpene

Question

on analysis, a certain organic compound was found to contain 41% carbon, 8% hydrogen and the rest is oxygen. if it's molecular mass was 64g, find it's empirical formula

Answer 1

Carbon=41g, hydrogen= 8g, oxygen=51g,

Number of moles ratio nC : nH : nO = 2: 5 : 2

(Atomic mass of carbon =12, hydrogen= 1 , oxygen= 16)

Hence the emperical formula is C2H5O2