Grams and moles

Diane · Post by **Diane** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:55 am

I am totally stumped. Where do I begin?

Ethyl acetate reacts with H₂ in the presence of a catalyst to yield ethyl alcohol:
C₄H₈O₂(l) + H₂(g) --- C₂H₆O(l)

How do I balance an equation for this reaction?

Then I need to figures out how many moles of ethyl alcohol are produced by reaction of 1.5 mol of ethyl acetate.

How many grams of ethyl alcohol are produced by reaction of 1.5 mol of ethyl acetate with H₂?

How many grams of ethyl alcohol are produced by reaction of 12.0 g of ethyl acetate with H₂?

Lost in chemistry!!

expert · Post by **expert** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 10:16 pm

First of all it is a very strange reaction. If C₄H₈O₂ is Ethyl acetate that is CH₃COOCH₂CH₃. To make ethanol you have to hydrolyze and hydrogenate at the same time (add both water and hydrogen) to the molecule, so water is required as a reagent here for hydrolysis, but water molecule at the same time is generated as a result of reduction. Interesting what the catalyst would be if this reaction really exists.
C₄H₈O₂ + 2H₂ = 2C₂H₆O - balanced
As you can see, the amount of alcohol product doubles, so 1.5 mol of ethyl acetate will produce 3 mols of ethanol.
To calculate amount in grams you have to multiply this number by molecular weight of ethanol.
Similar, 12 g of ethyl acetate can be recalculated into the number of mols by dividing to mol weight of ethyl acetate. You know the rest of the story