10.

3 Percent Composition
and Chemical Formulas > Revision

Percent Composition from Mass Data

If you know the relative masses of each
element in a compound, you can
calculate the percent composition of the
compound.

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10.3 Percent Composition
and Chemical Formulas > Revision

Percent Composition from Mass Data

The percent by mass of an element
in a compound is the number of
grams of the element divided by
the mass in grams of the
compound, multiplied by 100%.
mass of element
% by mass of element = mass of compound × 100%

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10.3 Percent Composition
and Chemical Formulas > Revision

Percent Composition from the

Chemical Formula
You can also calculate the percent
composition of a compound using its
chemical formula.

% by mass = mass of element in 1 mol compound

× 100%
of element molar mass of compound

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10.3 Percent Composition Percent Composition of a
and Chemical Formulas > Compound
Percent Composition as a Conversion
Factor
You can use percent composition to
calculate the number of grams of any
element in a specific mass of a compound.
• To do this, multiply the mass of the
compound by a conversion factor based on
the percent composition of the element in
the compound. (amount of element/100
sample)

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10.3 Percent Composition
and Chemical Formulas > Empirical Formulas

The empirical formula of a compound gives

the lowest whole-number ratio of the atoms
or moles of the elements in a compound.

• An empirical formula may or may not be the

same as a molecular formula.
• Ex: HO is the empirical formula for hydrogen
peroxide while H2O2 is the molecular formula.
• For carbon dioxide, the empirical and
molecular formulas are the same CO2.
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10.3 Percent Composition
and Chemical Formulas > Empirical Formulas

The percent composition of a compound

can be used to calculate the empirical
formula of that compound.
• The percent composition tells the ratio of masses of
the elements in a compound.
• The ratio of masses can be changed to ratio of moles
by using conversion factors based on the molar mass
of each element.
• The mole ratio is then reduced to the lowest whole-
number ratio to obtain the empirical formula of the
compound.
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10.3 Percent Composition
and Chemical Formulas > Molecular Formulas

The molecular formula of a compound

is either the same as its experimentally
determined empirical formula, or it is
a simple whole-number multiple of
its empirical formula.

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10.3 Percent Composition
and Chemical Formulas > Molecular Formulas

The molecular formula of a compound

is either the same as its experimentally
determined empirical formula, or it is
a simple whole-number multiple of
its empirical formula.
• Once you have determined the empirical
formula of a compound, you can determine
its molecular formula, if you know the
compound’s molar mass.

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10.3 Percent Composition
and Chemical Formulas > Molecular Formulas

You can calculate the empirical formula

mass (efm) of a compound from its
empirical formula.
• Then you can divide the experimentally
determined molar mass by the empirical formula
mass.
• This gives the number of empirical formula
units in a molecule of the compound and is
the multiplier to convert the empirical formula
to the molecular formula.
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