What is the empirical formula for a hydrocarbon fuel?

A hydrocarbon fuel is fully combusted with 18.214 g of oxygen to yield 23.118 g of carbon dioxide and 4.729 g of water. Find the empirical formula for the hydrocarbon. mol CO21 mol C23.118 g CO2 ×=0.52528 mol C÷⎫0.52515≈1 mol C44.011 g CO21 mol CO2⎪⎪⎬CH 4.729 g H2OH2O×= mol 2mol H

What are some points to make about combustion analysis?

Some points to make about combustion analysis: 1) The elements making up the unknown substance almost always include carbon and hydrogen. Oxygen is often involved and nitrogen is involved sometimes. Other elements can be involved, but problems with C and H tend to predominate followed by C, H and O and then by C, H, O and N.

What elements are involved in the combustion of unknown substances?

Oxygen is often involved and nitrogen is involved sometimes. Other elements can be involved, but problems with C and H tend to predominate followed by C, H and O and then by C, H, O and N. 2) We must know the mass of the unknown substance before burning it.

What is the ratio of carbon to hydrogen to carbon dioxide?

Carbon is always in CO2in the ratio (12.011 g / 44.0098 g), hydrogen is always in H2O in the ratio (2.0158 g / 18.0152 g), etc. 2) Convert grams of each element to the number of moles. You do this by dividing the grams by the atomic weight of the element.

What is the empirical formula of the substance ch?

4) We have now arrived at the answer: the empirical formula of the substance is CH. Example #3:A 0.2500 g sample of a compound known to contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen undergoes complete combustion to produce 0.3664 g of CO2and 0.1500 g of H2O.

What are the products of combustion of hydrocarbons?

The key here is to realize that you’re dealing with a hydrocarbon, that is, a compound that contains only carbon and hydrogen. Notice that the products of this combustion reaction are carbon dioxide, CO2, and water, H2O. This tells you that all the carbon that was initially a part of the hydrocarbon will now be part of the carbon dioxide.

What is Step 2 and Step 3 of the empirical formula?

Steps 2 and 3 are the technique for determining the empirical formula. Step one is required because you have all your carbon, for example, in the form of CO2instead of a simpler problem where it tells you how much carbon is present.