What is the empirical formula of a compound that is 50.7 percent antimony and 49.3 percent selenium by weight?

Answer 1

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Answer 2

We assume 100 grams of the compound and turn those percentages into grams and get the moles.

50.7 grams antimony (1 mole Sb/121.8 gram)

= 0.41626 moles antimony

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Now, the smallest mole number (antimony) becomes 1 and the other number is divided by it(antimony) to get the empirical numbers.

0.62467 moles Se/0.41626 moles Sb

= 1.5

----------------so, this happens sometimes and this is what we do

(SbSe1.5)*2

= Sb2Se3

-----------------The empirical formula Antimony selenide

Answer 3

The first step is to convert the percentages to grams. Assuming a 100 g sample, this would give you 50.7 g of antimony and 49.3 g of selenium. Next, determine the moles of each element by dividing the mass by their respective molar masses. Then, divide the moles of each element by the smaller of the two to get the empirical formula, which in this case is SbSe.