You have a clear liquid substance of unknown formula, but known to contain the elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and you have been tasked with finding its identity. To identify the substance, you decide to do a combustion analysis (to determine its empirical formula) and also plan to vaporize a sample of the substance in an Erlenmeyer flask (to determine its molecular weight).
For the combustion analysis, you burn 1.823 g of the compound in a furnace, and trap the CO2 and H2O formed in the combustion, using an apparatus like the following:
Before the combustion was carried out, the H2O absorber had a mass of 67.218 g, and the CO2 absorber had a mass of 52.944 g. After the combustion, the H2O absorber had a mass of 68.312 g and the CO2 absorber had a mass of 55.616 g. Write a paper in which you analyze the data that is given to obtain an empirical formula for the unknown compound. You should summarize the task you are working on in a brief introduction, fully explain the theory behind what you are doing, and show the calculations in full detail, arriving at an empirical formula as the final answer. While typed papers are preferred, you may neatly write your paper in blue or black ink, considering all of the mathematics you will have to show. Correctly rendered equations and conversion factors can be generated on a computer, but it is, admittedly, a tedious process. You may want to consider typing most of your paper, but filling it the mathematical parts neatly written by hand in blue or black ink. Use the following atomic weights for your calculations: C 12.01 H 1.08 0 16.00
