Which Equation is correct?

Chris Ellison

Introduction

Copper has two oxides, Cu2O and CuO.

When heated Copper carbonate, CuCO3 decomposes to form into one of these two oxides. An equation can be written for both-

Equation 1: 2CuCO3(s)→ Cu2O(s) + 2CO2(G) + ½O2(g)

Equation 2: CuCO3(s) → CuO(s) + CO2(g)

To find out which equation is correct we need to find out how many moles of CO2 and O2 are produced by one mole of CuCO3.

1g of CuCo3 will produce 247.2cm3 of gas.

Number of moles = Mass

Mr

1

124 = 0.0081 moles of CO2

0.0081 = 0.0020 moles of O2

4

= 0.0103 moles of gas produced for 1g of CuCO3.

0.0103 x 24000 = 247.2cm3

1g of CuCO3 will produce 194.4cm3 of gas.

0.0081 moles of Co2.

0.0081 x 24000 = 194.4cm3

Using this we can find out which equation is correct by the amount of gas produced.

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