In order to calculate the molecular weight of a formula, you'll need to add up the atomic masses of each element present. Since there are 2 oxygen atoms, you would write. From the percentages given, use the procedure given in Example 6 to calculate the empirical formula of caffeine. The molecular weight can be calculated from the chemical formula by using standard values of the molecular weight of each atom. Given: molecular formula and mass of sample, Asked for: mass percentage of all elements and mass of one element in sample. So therefore X = 310.182. In science, weight is a force related to gravity and the mass of an object. However, they do associate in discrete ratios of ions. ", "Thank you so much for this wonderful explanation. [1] X For example, each chlorine atom contributes approximately 35.5 to the molecular weight. As a check, we can add the percentages together: $57.14\% + 6.16\% + 9.52\% + 27.18\% = 100.00\%$. The formula weight of a substance is the sum of the atomic weights of each atom in its chemical formula. These are defined below. This gives the amount of the atoms/molecules/compounds present in one mole of the substance. Step 4. Unless otherwise noted, LibreTexts content is licensed by CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. A We calculate the mass of each element in 1 mol of aspartame and the molar mass of aspartame, here to three decimal places: $14 \,C (14 \, mol \, C)(12.011 \, g/mol \, C) = 168.154 \, g$, $18 \,H (18 \, mol \, H)(1.008 \, g/mol \, H) = 18.114 \, g$, $2 \,N (2 \, mol \, N)(14.007 \, g/mol \, N) = 28.014 \, g$, $+5 \,O (5 \, mol \, O)(15.999 \, g/mol \, O) = 79.995 \, g$, $C_{14}H_{18}N_2O_5 \text {molar mass of aspartame} = 294.277 \, g/mol$. Select the desired units for thermodynamic data: SI calorie-based; Select the desired type(s) of data: If the ratios are not integers, multiply all subscripts by the same number to give integral values. Each glucose contains six CH2O formula units, which gives a molecular formula for glucose of (CH2O)6, which is more commonly written as C6H12O6. Does this mean that the compound of interest contains a nonintegral number of atoms? 38.049 is the weight of glycerol backbone. **Atomic weight, and therefore molecular weight, are relative values and have no unit. Formula weight is a measurement used to identify how much a specific chemical compound weighs based on its formula. By definition, the molar mass has the units of grams per mole. In our carbon dioxide example, the mass of the single carbon atom is 12.011 amu. Then, count the atoms according to the molecular formula and write them next to the element’s name or symbol. Calculate molecular weight of hemoglobin. The molecular weight of a substance is the weight in atomic mass units of all the atoms in a given formula. Gas Constant (R) The constant that appears in the ideal gas equation (PV=nRT). Multiply each subscript in the empirical formula by the number of formula units to give the molecular formula. Here, M n is the number average molecular weight, N i is the number of molecules having M i weight in the polymer sample, and M i is the weight of a particular molecule of the sample. To three decimal places, the calculations are the following: $\text {mass of C/mol of sucrose} = 12 \, mol \, C \times {12.011 \, g \, C \over 1 \, mol \, C} = 144.132 \, g \, C \label{3.1.1a}$, $\text {mass of H/mol of sucrose} = 22 \, mol \, H \times {1.008 \, g \, H \over 1 \, mol \, H} = 22.176 \, g \, H \label{3.1.1b}$, $\text {mass of O/mol of sucrose} = 11 \, mol \, O \times {15.999 \, g \, O \over 1 \, mol \, O} = 175.989 \, g \, O \label{3.1.1c}$. The chemical analysis of caffeine shows that it contains 49.18% carbon, 5.39% hydrogen, 28.65% nitrogen, and 16.68% oxygen by mass, and its experimentally determined molar mass is 196 g/mol. Research source Some text also refers it to formula mass. The number of significant figures in the numbers of moles of elements varies between two and three because some of the analytical data were reported to only two significant figures. 1,060-26,600) 1 Product Result | Match Criteria: Product Name, Description The molecular weight of the triglyceride (oil molecule) containing three fatty acids can be calculated as: MW=3*Average molecular weight of fatty acids+38.049. The LibreTexts libraries are Powered by MindTouch® and are supported by the Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot Project, the UC Davis Office of the Provost, the UC Davis Library, the California State University Affordable Learning Solutions Program, and Merlot. Solution. Simplified we get X=120.234 + 2(94.974). Then, multiply the atomic mass of an element by the number of atoms of the element in the molecule. Let's say the empirical formula is C_2H_3. So we write the formula of calcium phosphate as Ca3(PO4)2. For hydrogen, the atomic weight is 1.00794, and for oxygen it is 15.9994. C There are two C4H5N2O formula units in caffeine, so the molecular formula must be (C4H5N2O)2 = C8H10N4O2. C The mass of carbon in 1.00 g of aspartame is calculated as follows: $\text {mass of C} = 1.00 \, g \, aspartame \times {57.14 \, g \, C \over 100 \, g \, aspartame } = 0.571 \, g \, C$, Exercise $$\PageIndex{1}$$: Aluminum Oxide. $moles \, C = 49.18 \, g \, C \times {1 \, mol \, C \over 12.011 \, g \, C} = 4.095 \, mol \, C$, $moles \, H = 5.39 \, g \, H \times {1 \, mol \, H \over 1.0079 \, g \, H} = 5.35 \, mol \, H$, $moles \, N = 28.65 \, g \, N \times {1 \, mol \, N \over 14.0067 \, g \, N} = 2.045 \, mol \, N$, $moles \, O = 16.68 \, g \, O \times {1 \, mol \, O \over 15.9994 \, g \, O} = 1.043 \, mol \, O$. Therefore, the formula would be 12.01 + 2(16), which gives you the molecular mass 44.01 g/mol. For carbon dioxide, the molecular weight can be found like so. For example, the formula weight of the oxygen molecule is about 32 grams per mole; this is because the oxygen molecule consists of two oxygen atoms and each oxygen atom weighs approximately 16 grams per mole. Typical unit is g/mol. This assumption simplifies the arithmetic because a 53.9% mass percentage of carbon corresponds to 53.9 g of carbon in a 100.0 g sample of penicillin G; likewise, 4.8% hydrogen corresponds to 4.8 g of hydrogen in 100.0 g of penicillin G; and so forth for the other elements. Gas Constant (R) This gives the number of moles of each element in 100 g of caffeine. Molecular weight Calculating the molecular weight. Example $$\PageIndex{2}$$: Calcium Phosphate in Toothpaste. number average molecular weight is defined as the total weight of polymer divided by the total number of molecules For example, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen can chemically bond to form a molecule of the sugar glucose with the chemical and molecular formula of C6H12O6. Dividing the mass of each element in the 100 g sample by its molar mass gives the number of moles of each element in the sample: $\text {moles Ca} = 38.77 \, g \, Ca \times {1 \, mol \, Ca \over 40.078 \, g \, Ca} = 0.9674 \, mol \, Ca$, $\text {moles P} = 19.97 \, g \, P \times {1 \, mol \, P \over 30.9738 \, g \, P} = 0.6447 \, mol \, Ca$, $\text {moles O} = 41.27 \, g \, O \times {1 \, mol \, O \over 15.9994 \, g \, O} = 2.5800 \, mol \, O$. From these mass percentages, the empirical formula and eventually the molecular formula of the compound can be determined. The empirical formula of a substance can be calculated from the experimentally determined percent composition, the percentage of each element present in a pure substance by mass. B To calculate the mass percentage of each element, we divide the mass of each element in the compound by the molar mass of aspartame and then multiply by 100 to obtain percentages, here reported to two decimal places: $mass \% \, C = {168.154 \, g \, C \over 294.277 \, g \, aspartame } \times 100 = 57.14 \% C$, $mass \% \, H = {18.114 \, g \, H \over 294.277 \, g \, aspartame } \times 100 = 6.16 \% H$, $mass \% \, N = {28.014 \, g \, N \over 294.277 \, g \, aspartame } \times 100 = 9.52 \%$, $mass \% \, O = {79.995 \, g \, O \over 294.277 \, g \, aspartame } \times 100 = 27.18 \%$. Use of mass percentages, 1525057, and 1413739 the compound phosphate as Ca3 ( )! To measure is grams per mole this number by the empirical and molecular weight is! Simply the weight of a molecular weight formula here significant figures as required example \ ( \ce { C14H18N2O5 \! Fractionation ; CaH 2, sodium mirror and sodium/potassium alloy are recommended drying... 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