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‫بسم هللا الرحمن الرحيم‬

‫محمد عبدهللا الطيب‬ :‫االسم‬

EX.No:05

Ex. name: Stoichiometry (II) :

Empirical formula of an ionic compound.

Date:2008.4.13
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1. Objective:
Find the empirical formula for unknown ionic
compound.
using the percentage composition (by mass).

2. Theory:
The empirical formula: is the simplest whole number ratio
of atoms in the compound.
The molecular formula: is being the multiplication of the
empirical formula. Give the exact number of combining atoms
in compound.
And this tow ways is the most common ways used in
general chemical books. And there are many ways in chemistry
to represent chemical compound .the empirical and molecular
formulas are the most common ways used in general chemistry
books.
Ass we said there are a relation between empirical and
molecular formula . example is the empirical formula of glucose
(CH2O) that has the molecular formula 6x(CH2O)=C6H12O6
The empirical formula determination is the first step in the
identification process of new compound . it can be determined
experimentally by tow ways:
1.throuth the analysis method.
2.by the synthesis method.
In the chemical analysis method a known weight of the
unknown compound is combusted and the weight of the
products are determined. Weights obtain are then converted to
moles of each element the empirical formula is obtained .
In the synthesis method as will be done in this experiment
a known weight of a metal is allowed to react completely with
an excess amount of a nonmetal . the weight of product and
nonmetal are obtained and then used to determine the empirical
formula of the compound.
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In this experiment a weight amount of magnesium turnings

is allowed to burn in air to produce magnesium oxide , from the
mass of starting materials and product the empirical formula of
magnesium oxide is determined.

Materials:
1. Clay triangle.
2. magnesium turning.
3. Crucible and cover.
4. Balance.
5. Desiccators.
6. Stand and clamps.
7. Tongs.
8. Iron ring.
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3. Procedure:
1. Take a clean, dry crucible and cover.
2. Heat the crucible and cover to redness (about 5
min) using the non-luminous flame, then leave it to
cool for 10 min before using it.
3. Weight the crucible (without cover) accurately.
4. Place about 0.25g of magnesium turning in the
crucible then weight again.
5. Place the crucible on the clay triangle and
remember to cover the crucible completely .
6. Heat the crucible and its content gently at the
beginning . take care to lift the cover partially in
order to introduce oxygen occasionally to the
reaction mixture.
Note: don’t open the cover widely because
magnesium will burn brightly if this happened cover
the crucible immediately.
7. continue heating until all magnesium is converted
to ash then remove cover and heat the opened
crucible to redness.

8. Allow the crucible to cool for 10 min then add few

drops about (3) of water decompose any magnesium
nitride (Mg3N2) formed during heatig
9.reheat the opened crucible and content until the ash
is completely dry.(notice any color change)
10.cool the crucible and content ,then weight again.
11. allow cooling as done in the pervious step then
weight again (the values obtains in the firs weigh and
second not differ for more than 0.05g .if the
difference is greater than 0.05g repeat heating until
you achieve constant mass.
12. Record and calculate.
*note: in all experiment use the tongs to hold the
crucible.
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4. Results and Calculate:

Table of recorded data:

Mass of empty crucible =m1= 28.35g

Mass of crucible + magnesium turning =m2 28.60g
Mass of Mg=m2-m1 0.25g
=28.6-28.35=
Moles of Mg=mass/m.wt 0.01g
=0.25/24=
Mass of crucible + magnesium oxide=m3= 28.74g
Mass of magnesium oxide = m3-m1 0.39g
= 28.74-28.35=
Mass of oxygen used =0.39-0.25 0.14g
Moles of oxygen =m/m.wt 8.75/1000
=0.14/16 mol
Ratio of Mg:O 1:1
0.01 : (0.008 = 0.01)
Empirical formula for magnesium oxide MgO
%O in the empirical formula =(mass O /mass MgO)100%
=(0.14/0.39)100%
=36%
=40%(as in the actual result
16/40)
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5. Discussion:
In this experiment we had to heat the magnesium
turning to react with oxygen and produce magnesium
oxide but when the magnesium turning become very hot
there were 2 problem came out:
The 1st problem : that the magnesium turning cling
together so this made isolated surface and this forbidding
the oxygen to enter between magnesium turning
molecules so the inner content didn’t react with the
magnesium turning and didn’t convert to magnesium
oxide and the solve for this problem was to break this
surface by vibrate the crucible .

The 2nd problem :that the magnesium turning burn

brightly so we had to cover the crucible immediately to
stop this then we had to lift the cover partially to oxygen
enter the crucible and oxide the magnesium turning.
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Pre-laboratory questions
Q.1) an oxide of tungsten (W) is yellow soled if 5.34g of the
compound contain 4.32g of W what is the empirical
formula?
Moles of W = wt/m.wt
=4.32/183.2
=0.325 mol
mole of O = wt/m.wt
=(5.34-4.32)/16
=0.063 mol
W 0.023/0.023 O 0.063/0.023
empirical formula is WO3

Q.2)phenol is compound composed of C .H .O combustion of

5.23mg of phenol yields 14.6mg of CO2 and 3.01mg of H2O
Find empirical formula and percentage for each element in the
compound.
Solution:
(Cx Hy Oz) + O2 CO2 + H2O
-3
5.23x10 14.6x 3.01x10-3

*moles of CO2 =14.6x 10-3/44

=3.32x10-4 mol CO2

*moles of C =3.32x10-4 mol C

*mass of C =3.32x10-4 x 12
=3.96x10-3 g

*moles of H2O=3.01x10-3 / 180

=1.67x10-4 mol H2O

*mol of H =2xmol of H2O

=3.34x10-4 mol H
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*mass of H =3.34x10-4 g

*mass of O=mass of sample - (mass of C + mass of H)

=5.23x10-3-(14.6+3.01) 10-3
=9.36x10-4g

*moles of O=9.36x10-4/16
=5.85x10-5

*C 3.32x10 H 3.34x10
-4 -4
o 5.85x 10-5

C 3.32x10-4
/ 5.85x10
-5
H 3.34x10 -4
/ 5.85x10
-5
o 5.85x 10-5 / 5.85x10-5

C 5.7 H 5.7 o
Empirical formula is C6H6 o

*%C=(m/m of sample)100%=75.7%
*%H=6.4%
*%O=17.9%

Q.3)why should crucible tong not finger be always used to

hold the crucible after heating?

1.Because the is very hot so it could be burn your finger .

2. maybe the wt increase or decrease.
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Post-laboratory questions
Q.1) how could the calculate empirical formula
of magnesium oxide be effected if:
* Mgx Oy is empirical formula
A. if in complete dehydration after add water:

Mass of Mg oxide will increase ,O mass will

increase so that x/y will decrease because y will
increase

B. forget step 9 and didn’t rid the magnesium

nitride:
Mgx will increase and x/y will increase

C.if Mg was not allowed to react completely

with oxygen:

Mass of MgO will decrease ,mass of O will decrease,

Mg increase, Moles of O decrease then the ratio would be
different

Q.2)write the balanced equation that represent the

magnesium nitride :
3Mg +N2 Mg3N2

Q.3)how could you rid of the by product formed in

this experiment , write the balanced equation?
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2Mg+O2 2MgO
3Mg+N2 Mg3N2
by adding water
Mg3N2 + 3H2O 3MgO+2NH3

Q.4)list the errors that could occurred in this

experiment:
1.if we used yellow flame.
2.if the water dosnt vapor all.
3.if N from Mg3N2 doesn’t removed completely.
4.error in weight.
5.if the Mg get burn brightly .