Problem: In addition to carbon monoxide CO and carbon dioxide CO2, there is a third compound of carbon and oxygen called carbon suboxide. If a 2.500 g sample of carbon suboxide contains 1.32 g of C and 1.18 g of O, what is a possible formula for carbon suboxide?

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FREE Expert Solution

We’re being asked to determine the empirical formula of a compound composed of C, H, and O, given the mass percent of C and O.


Recall that the empirical formula is the simplest whole-number ratio formula of a compound. 


For this problem, we need to do the following steps:

Step 1: Calculate the moles of C, and O in the compound.

Step 2: Determine the lowest whole number ratio of C, and O to get the empirical formula.


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Problem Details

In addition to carbon monoxide CO and carbon dioxide CO2, there is a third compound of carbon and oxygen called carbon suboxide. If a 2.500 g sample of carbon suboxide contains 1.32 g of C and 1.18 g of O, what is a possible formula for carbon suboxide?

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