Question

When sodium chlorate is strongly heated in vaccum it decomposes according to the following equation
2NaClO3 (yields) 2 NaCl(s) + 3 O2(g)

Based on the balanced equation, calculate the number of moles of sodium chlorate that must completely decompose to produce 3.70 moles of oxygen gas.


REWARDS WILL BE GIVEN

Answer 1

Alright, this is easy. The equation is already balanced and we're good to go.
This question is basic stoichiometry, using mole ratios based on a balanced equation.

Answer 2

ok

Answer 3

Do you see for every 2 moles of sodium chlorate, 3 moles of di-oxygen are made?

Answer 4

yes

Answer 5

Good, we can make a conversion factor out of that. We're given the total moles of O2, we need to find the moles of sodium chlorate.

Answer 6

\[(3.70 mol O2)(\frac{2 mol Na2CO3}{3 mol O2}) = ? mole Na2CO3\]

Answer 7

You see, the first factor is the given moles of O2. And the second factor is that conversion ratio I was talkin about. We want to get rid of the 'moles of O2' so we're left with moles of Na2CO3.

Answer 8

now we just calculate

Answer 9

Yep.

Answer 10

yes im still getting the hand of the factor label method... thanks that actually helped

Answer 11

Yes, it helps alot. Writing the units out can make solving problems easy.

Answer 12

ok thanks