Upon combustion, a compound containing only carbon and hydrogen produces 2.28 gCO2 and 0.702 gH2O. Find the empirical formula of the compound.

EF = CH₂

Explanation:

The empirical formula of any compound would be the most simplified and simple chemical formula of a compound. To get this number, we need to get the data of how many moles of each atom of the compoud we have.

Analyzing the data, we just know that an unknown compound undergoes a combustion reaction and produces CO₂ and H₂O. As the compound only have Carbon and hydrogen, it's pretty easy to get the moles of each atom.

To get the moles of CO₂, we need the molar mass of CO₂, which is 44 g/mol, then the moles:

nCO₂ = 2.28 / 44 = 0.0518 moles of CO₂.

Now that we have the moles of CO₂, we can get the moles of Carbon. Since 1 mole of CO₂ is made of 1 mole of Carbon and 2 moles of oxygen, this means that we have 0.0518 moles of C.

Applying the same thing with the water, we have:

nH₂O = 0.702 / 18 = 0.039 moles of water

And 1 mole of water is made of 1 mole of oxygen and two moles of hydrogens, then the moles of Hydrogen are 0.078 moles.

With these moles, we can now calculate the empirical formula.

C = 0.0518 / 0.0518 = 1

H = 0.078 / 0.0518 = 1.51 ≅ 2

Now these two numbers, give us the number of atoms, in the empirical formula so:

Of course there is no compound that have only those number of atom, but remember that this is the empirical formula, so, it's a simplified or reduced formula of the molecular formula, which means that the real or whole molecular formula could have more atoms of C and H, but to know this, we need the molar weight of this compound, and the problem does not give this data.

Hope this helps