Example: Empirical Formulas From Percent Composition

What is the empirical formula of a compound that contains 54.09 percent Ca, 43.18 percent O,
and 2.73 percent H?

The question gives the percent composition, and you need to find the empirical formula for a
compound that contains calcium, oxygen, and hydrogen.

The empirical formula shows the simplest whole-number ratio of the moles of elements; so, first,
convert the mass percent of each element to moles of each element. The first step to find the
moles is to convert the mass percent to mass in grams, and then use the molar masses of the
elements to convert the masses to moles. We find the mass composition for a 100-gram sample
to simplify calculations. A 100-gram sample of this compound contains 54.09 grams calcium,
43.18 grams oxygen, and 2.73 grams of hydrogen.

Next, we convert the masses of each element to moles, using the molar masses from the periodic
table as conversion factors. A 100-gram sample of the compound contains 1.350 moles of
calcium, 2.71 moles of hydrogen, and 2.699 moles of oxygen.

Now that we know the moles of each element, we need to find the smallest whole number mole
ratio. Begin by dividing each number of moles by the smallest number of moles. For this
compound, calcium had the fewest number of moles, 1.350 moles. The resulting numbers are
rarely exact whole numbers, but they should be close. For this compound, we can round the
moles of hydrogen and oxygen to two.

The last step is to use the mole ratio to write the empirical formula. The numbers in the mole ratio
become subscripts after the corresponding elements symbol in the formula.

KC Distance Learning