0.250 g of a hydrocarbon known to contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen was subject to complete combustion and produced 0.3664 g of CO2 and 0.1500 g of H2O. What is the empirical formula of this hydrocarbon?

The first step here is to determine the mass of C in CO₂ and the mass of H in H₂O. This is done by dividing the relative atomic mass, Mr, by the relative molecular mass of the compound, M_CO2 or M_H2O, and then multiplying by the mass of compound produced.

For C:

(12.011 g / 44.009 g) x 0.3664 g = 0.1000 g

For H:

(1.0079 x 2 / 18.0148) x 0.1500 g = 0.0168 g

From here we can determine the mass of oxygen in the hydrocarbon by subtraction of the two above masses:

O: 0.2500 g - 0.1000 g - 0.0168 g = 0.1332 g

From here we determine the number of moles of each element, this is done by dividing by the mass of each element by its atomic mass:

C: 0.1000 g / 12.011 g mol^-1 = 0.0083 mol

H: 0.01678 g / 1.0079 g mol^-1 = 0.0166 mol

O: 0.1332 g / 15.999 g mol^-1 = 0.0083 mol

The final step is to divide by the smallest number that obtained, in this case that is the number of moles of C and O:

C: 0.0083 mol / 0.0083 mol = 1

H: 0.0166 mol /0.0083 mol = 2

O: 0.0083 mol / 0.0083 mol = 1

We have now arrived at a ratio of 1:2:1 for C:H:O, thus we have an empirical formula of CH₂O.