Question

What is the molecular formula of a compound that has 44.44% carbon, 3.73% hydrogen, and 51.83% nitrogen?

Answer 1

You can find the empirical formula given these data. YOU CANNOT FIND THE molecular formula.

Explanation:

In `100` `g` of stuff, there are `(44.44*g*C)/(12.011*g*mol^-1) = 3.66*mol`, and `(3.73*g*H)/(1.00794*g*mol^-1) = 3.71*mol`, and `(51.83*g*N)/(14.01*g*mol^-1) = 3.70*mol`.

Thus the empirical formula is `CHN`. The molecular formula is some multiple of `CHN`, but we don't know what it is on the basis of these data.