Determine the empirical formula of a compound containing 40.6 grams of carbon, 5.1 grams of hydrogen, and 54.2 grams of oxygen. in an experiment, the molar mass of the compound was determined to be 118.084 g/mol. what is the molecular formula of the compound? for both questions, show your work or explain how you determined the formulas by giving specific values used in calculations.

-  Empirical formula is and molecular formula is .

Solution:- An empirical formula is the simplest whole number ratio of moles of each kind of element present in it.

Grams of each element are converted to moles on dividing by atomic masses.

= 3.38 mol C

= 5.05 mol H

= 3.39 mol O

The next step is to calculate the mol ratio and for this we divide the moles of each by least one of them.

C =  = 1

H =  = 1.5

O =  = 1

1.5 is not a whole number so we multiply all of these by 2 to get the simplest whole number ratio.

so, C = 2

H = 3

O = 2

The empirical formula is .

To find out the molecular formula we need to know how many empirical formula units are there in the molecular formula and for this we divide the molar mass by the empirical formula mass.

empirical formula mass = 2(12.01)+3(1.01)+2(16.00)

= 24.02+3.03+32.00

= 59.05

So, number of empirical formula units =

= 2

Hence, the molecular formula of the compound will be two times of its empirical formula that is .