How many moles of oxygen are in a 5.5-L canister at STP?

1 Answer
Jun 24, 2016

There are 0.25mol of O_2 in the 5.5-L canister.

Explanation:

We are at STP, so we have to use the ideal gas law equation.
PxxV = nxxRxxT.

  • P represents pressure (could have units of atm, depending on the units of the universal gas constant)
  • V represents volume (must have units of liters)
  • n represents the number of moles
  • R is the universal gas constant (has units of (Lxxatm)/ (molxxK))
  • T represents the temperature, which must be in Kelvins.

Next, list your known and unknown variables. Our only unknown is the number of moles of O_2(g). Our known variables are P,V,R, and T.

At STP, the temperature is 273K and the pressure is 1 atm. The proportionality constant, R, is equal to 0.0821 (Lxxatm)/ (molxxK)

Now we have to rearrange the equation to solve for n:

n = (PV)/(RT)

n = (1cancel"atm"xx5.5cancelL)/(0.0821(cancel"Lxxatm")/(molxxcancel"K")xx273cancel"K"
n = 0.25mol