anonymous one year ago Use the mass values of each element to determine the empirical formula of the tin oxide compound. mass of tin: 2.12g mass of oxygen: 4.5g

1. anonymous

@DanJS

2. DanJS

sorry, i would have to look it up, been a few years since chem, it is the reduiced formula...need to find the mass ratios i think

3. DanJS

is there more than one oxide of tin mayhbe too

4. anonymous

i dont think so, otherwise there would be the roman numerals right

5. DanJS

yes, here are a couple examples, seems straight forward

6. DanJS
7. DanJS

what is the formula for the tin oxide? tin has more than one oxidation state

8. DanJS

SnO SnO2 ?

9. anonymous

its SnO

10. anonymous

also it says tin (II) oxide

11. DanJS

right that is what it is if SnO , since oxygen is -2 ion charge

12. DanJS

it just follows example 1 in that link i put above

13. DanJS

convert both gram masses to moles of each first...

14. anonymous

im not sure how to do that,

15. anonymous

do i find it on the periodic table or something ?

16. DanJS

Look on the periodic table to find the mass of each element...molecular mass

17. anonymous

118.71 u for tin and 15.9994 u ± 0.0004 u for oxygen

18. DanJS

that is how many grams of that element are in 1 mole of that element

19. DanJS

sounds right, i know oxygen is 16

20. anonymous

ok, what to do from here

21. DanJS

so convert each to moles by.... |dw:1441161268321:dw|

22. DanJS

notice grams X cancels out, it is on top and bottom

23. anonymous

yea

24. DanJS

$\frac{ 2.12g~Sn }{ 1}*\frac{ 1~mol~Sn }{ 118.71g~Sn }~~ \approx~~0.0179~mol~~Sn$

25. DanJS

remember the number from the table, 118.71 gives you the number of grams of tin per 1 mole... the second fraction used

26. anonymous

so tins molar mass is 0.0179 mol

27. anonymous

yes

28. DanJS

no, tins molar mass is 118.71 g / mol (on table) 0.0179 mol tin is the same thing as 2.12 g tin that is given, just converted grams of tin to moles of tin

29. DanJS

in the same way, convert the given grams of oxygen to moles of oxygen

30. anonymous

oh ok

31. anonymous

32. anonymous

is that correct

33. anonymous

I've gotta hit the sack now but we can continue this later, thanks!

34. DanJS

yes

35. DanJS

follow example 1 in here https://www.chem.tamu.edu/class/majors/tutorialnotefiles/empirical.htm already converted to moles...only one step left

36. DanJS

goodluck

37. anonymous

@DanJS ok im back, the last step is the division correct?

38. DanJS

oh, yeah i think you just divide by the smallest element value

39. anonymous

and we have to do that for each element

40. DanJS

0.0179 mol Sn and 0.2813 mol O one sec

41. anonymous

ok

42. DanJS

k

43. DanJS

yeah i think you just divide both by the smaller, and they should be near whole numbers

44. DanJS

so 16 oxygen and one tin i guess

45. DanJS

yeah, 4.5 grams of a gas is a bunch compared to 2.12g of tin

46. anonymous

ok, so theres 16 oxygen and 1 tin, how does this relate to the empirical formula of tin oxide

47. DanJS

idk, i would look more into it, i just went through it with you and looked it up

48. DanJS

Empirical Formula - A formula that gives the simplest whole-number ratio of atoms in a compound. i'm not very confident in that answer though, it may be right, not sure

49. DanJS

SnO16 ...looks strange

50. DanJS

i would re-ask the question in a fresh thread and maybe someone can do it for sure

51. anonymous

52. DanJS

welcome, i remember a few chem things pretty good from the 2 semesters i had to take

53. DanJS

empirical formula, not so much, never used again