Gadolinium oxide, a colorless powder which absorbs carbon dioxide from the air, contains 86.76 mass % gd. determine its empirical formula.

The mass % of = 86.76 % (given)

The mass % of = 100 - 86.76 = 13.24 %

Considering the mass of Gadolinium oxide as 100 g.

Then 86.76 mass % means the compound contains 86.76 g of in 100 g of Gadolinium oxide.

So, 13.24 mass % means the compound contains 13.24 g of in 100 g of Gadolinium oxide.

Using formula of number of moles:

The atomic mass of

The atomic mass of

In order to get the empirical formula, the moles are divide by the lowest value that is 0.5517.

So, the formula is , will multiply by 2 to get the whole integer.

Hence, the empirical formula is .

number of molecules / avogadro's number * molecule molecular = mass

explanation:

we define a gram-molecular weight as the mass of one mole of any element or compound. a mole contains avogadro's number of units (molecules) –  

6.022

x

10

23

. so, dividing the number of molecules by avogadro's number gives us the number of moles. multiplying that by the molecular weight gives us the mass. from the periodic table we find the gram-molecular weight of u to be238 and of f to be19. so,  

u

f

6

will have a gram-molecular weight of 352g.

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