January 20, 2012
by Arvin Moser, Team Manager, Application Scientists, ACD/Labs
Elemental analysis is an experiment used to determine the elemental composition of an unknown compound. The purpose of this puzzle is to use the percentage composition data from elemental analysis to deduce an empirical formula.
An elemental analysis was collected for an unknown organic compound. A 0.30 g sample of the unknown was burned to completion and it gave 59.6 % C, 6.9 % H and 8.7 % N. What is the empirical formula of the unknown?