Complete combustion of 2.60 g of a hydrocarbon produced 8.46 g of co2 and 2.60 g of h2o. what is the empirical formula for the hydrocarbon?

1 mole of carbon dioxide contains a mass of 44 g, out of which 12 g are carbon.

Hence, in this case the mass of carbon in 8.46 g of CO2:

(12/44) * 8.46 = 2.3073 g

1 mole of water contains 18 g, out of which 2 g is hydrogen;

Therefore, 2.6 g of water contains;

(2/18) * 2.6 = 0.2889 g of hydrogen.

Therefore, with the amount of carbon and hydrogen from the hydrocarbon we can calculate the empirical formula.

We first calculate the number of moles of each,

Carbon = 2.3073/12 = 0.1923 moles

Hydrogen = 0.2889/1 = 0.2889 moles

Then, we calculate the ratio of Carbon to hydrogen by dividing with the smallest number value;

Carbon : Hydrogen

0.1923/0.1923 : 0.2889/0.1923

1 : 1.5

(1 : 1.5) 2

= 2 : 3

Hence, the empirical formula of the hydrocarbon is C2H3