Chemistry lab help, Simulating an air bag with HCl and Baking Soda.

Question

I have a .946L ziplock bag. I have to combine the proper amount of HCl and NaHCO3 in the bag for a lab to fill the bag enough so that it is plump but will not pop. The temperature of the room will be 295K at 1 Atm. I need to find how much of each substance in Liters to combine in the bag so that it will simulate an air bag. The chemical equation is HCl + NaHCO3 > H20 + CO2 + NaCl. Please help.

Answer 1

HCl + NaHCO3 ==> H20 + CO2 + NaCl

Let us say that we want to generate 0.900 L of CO2 gas so it will fill the bag but it will not pop the bag.

From PV = nRT we can solve for n (moles of CO2 needed to get 0.9 L)

n = PV/RT = (1 atm)(0.900 L)/(0.0821 Latm/Kmol)(295K)

n = 0.0372 moles of CO2 needed

From the balanced equation we see that ONE mole HCl reacts with ONE mole NaHCO3 to make ONE mole CO2.

So, we will nee 0.0372 moles of HCl and 0.0372 moles NaHCO3 to make 0.0372 moles CO2

I cannot tell you the number of liters of HCl and NaHCO3 because you didn't supply the molarity or concentration of either. If you have the molarity of each, you can calculate the number of liters of each that will be needed.