Welcome back Candido — missed you this week.
The question asks to determine the percentage of each element present in the salt Potassium Hydrogen Phosphate Pentahydrate (K2HPO4⋅5H2O).
The given atomic masses are: K=39, P=31, O=16, H=1.
Step 1: Calculate the molar mass of K2HPO4⋅5H2O.
The formula contains:
• 2 atoms of Potassium (K)
• 1 atom of Phosphorus (P)
• 4 atoms of Oxygen (O) from HPO4
• 1 atom of Hydrogen (H) from HPO4
• 5 molecules of water (5H2O), which means 5×2=10 atoms of Hydrogen and 5×1=5 atoms of Oxygen.
Total number of atoms:
• K: 2
• P: 1
• O: 4+5=9
• H: 1+10=11
Molar mass:
M=(2×39)+(1×31)+(9×16)+(11×1)
M=78+31+144+11
M=264g/mol
Step 2: Calculate the mass contribution of each element.
• Mass of K: 2×39=78 g
• Mass of P: 1×31=31 g
• Mass of O: 9×16=144 g
• Mass of H: 11×1=11 g
Step 3: Calculate the percentage of each element.
Percentage of an element = molarmassofcompoundmassofelement×100%
Percentage of K:
%K=264g78g×100%
%K=29.545%
%K≈29.55%
Percentage of P:
%P=264g31g×100%
%P=11.742%
%P≈11.74%
Percentage of O:
%O=264g144g×100%
%O=54.545%
%O≈54.55%
Percentage of H:
%H=264g11g×100%
%H=4.166%
%H≈4.17%
The percentages of the elements are:
• Potassium (K): 29.55%
• Phosphorus (P): 11.74%
• Oxygen (O): 54.55%
• Hydrogen (H): 4.17%
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