2nd Semester QMC: Week 3 All of these three problems are quantitative, i.e. you need to do a calculation.

You can ask me for input information. 1. What is the mass of one molecule of I2 ?

2. How many oxygen atoms are there in a cup of tea?

3. 4. Dinitrogen adsorbs on zinc oxide powder at low temperatures. Estimate the weight of nitrogen that can adsorb as a monolayer on 1 g of ZnO powder, which is in the form of spherical particles with a radius of 10 nm. The nitrogen-nitrogen bond length is 1.1 . The density of ZnO is 5.61 g cm-3.

Area of a sphere = 4r2 Volume of a sphere = (4/3)r3

QMC 2005-6 Department of Chemistry, University of Bath.

QMC Week 3 Answers 1. The Periodic Table gives the molar mass of iodine as 126.90 g mol-1. Note the fact that by convention we use g and not kg. Note also the units mol-1, i.e. per mole. The molar mass of I2 is therefore 2 126.9 10-3 kg mol-1. To obtain the molecular mass of I2 we divide the molar mass, M, by Avogadros constant, 6.022 1023 mol-1. Notice the units again per mol. M I2 = 0.2538 kg mol-1 m I2 = 0.2538 kg mol-1 = 4.214 10-25 kg = 0.0000000000000000000000004214 kg 23 -1 6.022 10 mol

2. My teacup contains about 200 cm3 of H2O. The density of water is about 1 g cm-3. The molar mass of H2O is 18.016 g mol-1. We dont need all these significant figures since this is an estimation so M = 18 g mol-1 is fine. So my cup contains 200 g = 11.1 mol of H 2 O . Lets call this 11 mol. 18 g mol-1
23 -1 24 So my cup contains about 11 mol 6 10 mol = 6.6 10 molecules of H 2 O

i.e. 66000000000000000000000000 molecules.

3. 1. 0 g of ZnO has a volume of 1.0 g/5.61 g cm-3 = 0.178 cm3. Each sphere has a volume of V = (4/3)r3 r = 10nm = 10 10-9 m = 10-8 m = 10-6 cm. So V = (4/3) (10-6)3 cm3 = (4/3) 10-18 cm3 = 4.19 10-18 cm3. The number of ZnO particles is the total volume of ZnO divided by the volume of 1 particle, i.e. 0.178 cm3/4.19 10-18 cm3 = 4.25 1016 particles. The area of a sphere is 4r2 so the area of one particle = 4 (10-6)2 cm2 = 1.26 10-11 cm2.

QMC 2005-6 Department of Chemistry, University of Bath.

The total area of 1 g of ZnO is therefore area of 1 particle multiplied by number of particles Atotal = 1.26 10-11 cm2 4.25 1016 = 5.36 105 cm2 We need a model. Assume N2 adsorbs flat on ZnO surface 0.11 nm
0.11 nm

0,22 nm

Area occupied by one N2 molecule = 0.22 10-9 m 0.11 10-9 m = 2.2 10-8 cm 1.1 10-8 cm = 2.42 10-16 cm2. So if we pack the N2 molecules as a monolayer, we can fit in 5.36 105 cm2/2.42 10-16 N2 molecules on 1 g of ZnO, i.e. 2.21 1021 N2 molecules in total. To find the mass of dinitrogen, first convert this to mols of N2 and then multiply by the molar mass of N2 to get the total mass of N2 adsorbed. 2.21 1021/6.02 1023 mol-1 = 3.68 10-3 mol so mass adsorbed = 3.68 10-3 mol 28 g mol-1 = 0.103 g The high surface area ZnO powder can adsorb 1/10th of its own mass of dintrogen not bad!

QMC 2005-6 Department of Chemistry, University of Bath.