How many moles of CO 2 are emitted into the atmosphere when 14.6 g C 8 H 18 is burned?

Question

I'm having a hard time trying to balance the question and solving it

Answer 1

In these equations, the balanced equation is needed. I will admit that trying to balance equations with oxygen and CO₂ is one of the more difficult concepts in chemistry. However, with practice, you will be able to master this skill. If you need help, I would be glad to work with you on learning how to balance equations. To save time, here is the balanced equation. A quick helpful note is to balance the oxygen first then work on the other elements.

2 C₈H₁₈ + 25 O₂ => 16 CO₂ + 18 H₂O

Now, we have to find out how many moles C8H18 used by doing the following: 14.6 g x 1 mole/114 g (this is the molecular weight of C₈H₁₈) = 0.128 moles

Most questions will assume complete combustion so we will make that assumption as well to figure out how many moles of CO₂ are produced. For that we will be using dimensional analysis, which can be seen below.

 

0.128 moles C₈H₁₈ x 16 moles CO₂/2 moles C₈H₁₈ = 1.02 moles CO₂ produced