"Published in Vacaville, California, USA"
Acetone is the chemical solvent present in the fingernail polish remover. Its percent composition is 62.0% carbon, 10.4% hydrogen, and 27.5% oxygen. What is the empirical formula for the compound?
Solution:
Basis: 100 grams of sample
Weight of each components:
Weight of carbon is
Weight of hydrogen is
Weight of oxygen is
Moles of each components:
Moles of carbon is
Moles of hydrogen is
Moles of oxygen is
From the number of moles of each component, we need to divide all of them by their least number of moles which is oxygen in order to get the number of atoms in a sample.
Number of carbon in a sample is
Number of hydrogen in a sample is
Number of oxygen in a sample is
Therefore, the empirical formula for acetone is
