Hello, This is a second posting with the following changes: 1) new division step in the diagram procedure and 2) emphasis on "elemental analysis" instead of "mass spectrometry (mass spec.) data". Mass spec. is useful for compound molecular formula determination, molar mass determination, and as a sophisticated detector for an HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) analysis; a powerful compound separation technique.
Determination of The Empirical Formula of a Compound
Greetings,
This post begins what will become a series of posts on composition of a ternary compound. One of the keys in understanding chemistry is to have a firm understanding of the connections between mole-ratios, % mass of elements, and the compound formula.
Definitions
A ternary compound is one consisting of three different elements: Examples are compounds containing polyatomic ions and oxygen-containing derivatives of hydrocarbons, such as ethers, esters, aldehydes, and organic acids. The empirical formula of a compound consists of the simplest whole-number mole-ratio of elements. Often, the empirical formula and the molecular formula (the actual formula of a compound) are one in the same.
Determination of The Empirical Formula of a Hypothetical General Ternary Compound
This discussion will assume that we have a general compound with the formula, XxYyZz, where X, Y, and Z represent element symbols and x, y, and z represent whole-number subscripts. An elemental analysis of a compound will provide % mass abundances of the elements contained therein. The following image provides a detailed method for obtaining the empirical formula.
That's all for now. Thank you for reading!
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