Reacting one mole of sodium bicarbonate produces one mole of CO2 (g). Therefore, the mole ratio is 1mol sodium bicarbonate: 1 mol CO2. How many moles of CO2 are produced from one Alka-Seltzer tablet?

Answer 1

How many moles of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃) are there in one tablet? If one mole NaHCO₃ produces 1 mole of CO₂, then 2 moles of NaHCO₃ will produce 2 moles of CO₂, and so. If you know the number of moles of NaHCO₃ in 1 tablet, that will be the number of moles of CO₂ produced from 1 tablet.

If you know the grams of NaHCO₃ in 1 tablet, you can convert that to moles of NaHCO₃ by dividing grams by the molar mass.

If there are 1916 mg of NaHCO₃ per tablet, that would be 1.916 g of NaHCO₃.

To find moles you have 1.916 g NaHCO₃ x 1 mole/84.007 g = 0.02281 moles NaHCO₃

Moles CO₂ = 0.02281 moles NaHCO₃ x 1 mole CO₂/mole NaHCO₃ = 0.02281 moles of CO2

(NOTE: this assumes nothing else is in limiting supply), such as the citric acid needed to supply acidity).