How do I solve this problem?? Please be detailed

Question

The mineral bonattite is known to be a copper sulfate hydrant. A 2.000 g sample of bonattite was heated to release the water from the hydrate. The sample lost 0.506 g of mass. Through reaction with aluminum wire, 0.595 g of copper was recovered.

a) how many moles of water released?

b)How many moles of copper were recovered?

c) How many moles of Sulfate were in the compound?

d) What is the formula for bonattite?

Answer 1

To determine the moles of each compound, we will need to determine their respective masses.

We are given a 2.000 g sample of bonattite from the problem. It mentions that the sample is heated to release 0.506 g of water. The problem also mentions that through reaction with aluminum, 0.595 g of copper was obtained. So now we know the following:

0.506 g water

0.595 g copper

We can determine the mass of sulfate by subtracting the mass of water and copper from the original copper sulfate hydrate sample:

2.000 g sample - 0.506 g water - 0.595 g copper = 0.899 g sulfate

Now that we have the masses for each component of the sample, we can determine the moles of each compound by using the molar mass (g/mol) for each compound:

0.506 g water x (1 mole water/18.02 g water) = 0.0281 moles of water in 0.506 g of water

0.595 g copper x (1 mole copper/63.546 g copper) = 0.00936 moles of copper in 0.595 g of copper

0.899 g sulfate (SO₄^-2) x (1 mole SO₄^2-/96.06 g SO₄^2-) = 0.00936 moles of sulfate in 0.899 of sulfate

To determine the formula for the sample, we divide the moles of each compound by the least common denominator, or the sample with the least amount of moles, to determine the mole ratio:

water: 0.0281 moles/0.00936 moles = 3 moles

copper: 0.00936 moles/0.00936 moles = 1 mole

sulfate: 0.00936 moles/0.00936 moles = 1 mole

So, the formula of the sample is CuSO₄ • 3H₂O