ChemTeam - Combustion Analysis - Problems 1 - 10
ChemTeam - Combustion Analysis - Problems 1 - 10
ChemTeam - Combustion Analysis - Problems 1 - 10
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Problem #1: 0.487 grams of quinine (molar mass = 324 g/mol) is combusted and found to produce
1.321 g CO2, 0.325 g H2O and 0.0421 g nitrogen. Determine the empirical and molecular
formulas.
Problem #2: 95.6 mg of menthol (molar mass = 156 g/mol) are burned in oxygen gas to give 269
mg CO2 and 110 mg H2O. What is menthol's empirical formula?
Problem #3: 0.1005 g of menthol is combusted, producing 0.2829 g of CO2 and 0.1159 g of H2O.
What is menthol's empirical formula? (Yes, the answer will be the same as #12.)
Problem #4: The combustion of 40.10 g of a compound which contains only C, H, Cl and O yields
58.57 g of CO2 and 14.98 g of H2O. Another sample of the compound with a mass of 75.00 g is
found to contain 22.06 g of Cl. What is the empirical formula of the compound?
Solution #1:
3) Let us assume 100 g of the compound. In which case, the percentages above become grams.
Now, let us determine the moles of each (I'll skip typing the calcs):
C: 3.32 mol
H: 4.147 mol
O: 1.66 mol
Cl: 0.83 mol
C: 4
H: 5
O: 2
Cl: 1
Solution #2:
Carbon: 15.985 g
Hydrogen: 1.676 g
Here comes the interesting way that is different from solution #1:
Pretty slick, heh? Notice how the oxygen is determined by subtraction after everything else is
calculated. This is a common pattern in combustion analysis.
C = 1.331 mol
H = 1.663 mol
Cl = 0.3327 mol
O = 0.6653 mol
Note that there is no need to assume 100 g of the compound and work from the percent
composition.
C=4
H=5
Cl = 1
O=2
carbon: 34.01 g
hydrogen: 9.57 g
oxygen: 30.215 g
nitrogen: 26.205 g
4) Calculate moles:
6) Empirical formula:
C3H10N2O2
Problem #6: The combustion of 3.42 g of a compound is known to contain only nitrogen and
hydrogen gave 9.82 g of NO2 and 3.85 g of water. Determine the empirical formula of this
compound.
Solution:
Moles N
9.82 g NO2 / 46.0 g/mol = 0.213 mol NO2
(0.213 mol NO2) (1 mol N / 1 mol NO2) = 0.213 mol N
Moles H
3.85 g H2O / 18.0 g/mol = 0.213 mol H2O
(0.213 mol H2O) (2 mol H / 1 mol H2O ) = 0.428 mol H
Problem #7: A compound with a known molecular weight (146.99 g/mol) that contains only C, H,
and Cl was studied by combustion analysis. When a 0.367 g sample was combusted, 0.659 g of
CO2 and 0.0892 g of H2O formed. What are the empirical and molecular formulas?
Solution:
1) Carbon:
there is 1 mole of C in CO2 and all the C from the compound becomes CO2, so moles
of C in the compound = 0.0150 moles
2) Hydrogen:
3) Chlorine:
mass of H + C = 0.1897 g
mass of sample = 0.3670 g
mass of Cl by difference = 0.1773 g
moles of Cl = 0.0050 moles
5) Formulas:
C6H4Cl2
Problem #8: A 2.52 g sample of a compound containing carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and
sulfur was burned in excess oxygen gas to yield 4.36 grams of CO2 and 0.892 grams of H2O as the
only carbon and hydrogen products respectively. Another sample of the same compound of mass
4.14 g yielded 2.60 g of SO3 as the only sulfur containing product. A third sample of mass 5.66 g
was burned under different conditions to yield 2.80 g of HNO3 as the only nitrogen containing
product. Determine the empirical formula of the compound.
Solution #1:
1) Carbon:
2) Hydrogen:
3) Sulfur:
4) Nitrogen:
2.80 x (14.007 / 63.012) = 0.6224 g of N
0.6224 g / 5.66 g = 11.00%
5) Oxygen:
7) Convert to moles:
C = 5; H = 5; S = 1; N = 1; O = 1
Repeat Problem #8: A 2.52 g sample of a compound containing carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen,
oxygen, and sulfur was burned in excess oxygen gas to yield 4.36 grams of CO2 and 0.892 grams
of H2O as the only carbon and hydrogen products respectively. Another sample of the same
compound of mass 4.14 g yielded 2.60 g of SO3 as the only sulfur containing product. A third
sample of mass 5.66 g was burned under different conditions to yield 2.80 g of HNO3 as the only
nitrogen containing product. Determine the empirical formula of the compound.
Solution #2:
1) Carbon:
2) Hydrogen:
All the sulfur in the SO3 came from the 4.14 g sample.
Notice the scaling from 4.14 g of compound to 2.52 g.
4) Nitrogen:
All the nitrogen in the HNO3 came from the 5.66 g sample.
Notice the scaling from 5.66 g of compound to 2.52 g.
5) Oxygen:
Problem #9: Burning 11.2 mL (measured at STP) of a gas known to contain only carbon and
hydrogen, we obtained 44.0 mg CO2 and 0.0270 g H2O. Find the molecular formula of the gas.
Solution:
PV = nRT
n = 0.00050 mol
30 / 15 = 2
Problem #10: The osmotic pressure of a solution containing 2.04 g of an unknown molecular
compound dissolved in 175.0 mL of solution at 25.0 °C is 2.13 atm. The combustion of 22.08 g of
the unknown compound produced 36.26 g CO2 and 14.85 g H2O
Solution:
1) The osmotic pressure will allow us to calculate the molar mass of the substance:
π = iMRT
x = 0.015243 mole
C5H10O4
6) The "empirical formula weight" is 134. We calculated a molecular weight of 133.83. The
molecular formula is:
C5H10O4
Problem #11: 1.5 L of a gaseous compound consisting of carbon and hydrogen is combusted with
oxygen. When the resulting gaseous products are measured at the initial temperature and pressure,
it was found that 3.0 L of CO2 and 1.5 L of H2O were formed. What is the formula of the
compound?
Solution:
Just to make it a bit simpler to explain, let us assume a value of T and P such that the
3.0 L of each gas contains 3.0 moles. That means 1.5 moles of the compound was
initially present.
3.0 moles of CO2 contains 3.0 moles of C and 1.5 moles of H2O contains 3.0 moles of
H.
3.0 moles of C and 3.0 moles of H are contained in 1.5 moles of the compound.
Therefore, 1.0 mol of the compound contains 2.0 mol of C and 2.0 mol of H.
Bonus Problem #1: A 6.20-g sample of an unknown compound containing only C, H, and O
combusts in an oxygen rich environment. When the products have cooled to 20.0 °C at 1 bar, there
are 8.09 L of CO2 and 3.99 mL of H2O. The density of water at 20.0 °C is 0.998 g/mL.
Solution:
1) Mass of H2O:
2) Mass of CO2:
PV = nRT
n = 0.33208276 mol
4) Mass of O:
168.2 / 56.0636 = 3
If 0.148 g BxHy yields 0.422 g B2O3 when burned in excess O2, what is the empirical formula of
BxHy?
Solution:
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