Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is composed of 40.9 percent carbon, 4.6 percent hydrogen, and 54.5 percent oxygen. The molar mass of ascorbic acid is approximately 176 grams per mole. What is the molecular formula of ascorbic acid?

Molecular formula is : C₆H₈O₆

Explanation:

40.9 % of C, 4.6 % of H, 54.5 % of O means that in 100 g of ascorbic acid, we have 40.9 g of C, 4.6 g of H and 54.5 g of O.

If 1 mol of ascorbic acid weighs 176 g, let's determine the rules of three to know the grams of each element:

100 g of compound has ___ 40.9 g C __ 4.6 g H ___ 54.5 g O

176 g compound mus have:

(176. 40.9) / 100 = 72 g of C

(176. 4.6) / 100 = 8 g of H

(176. 54.5) / 100 = 96 g of O

If we convert the mass to moles:

72 g. 1 mol / 12 g = 6 C

8 g. 1 mol / 1g = 8 H

96 g. 1mol / 16 g = 6 O

Molecular formula is : C₆H₈O₆

In conclussion, 1 mol of ascorbic acid has 6 moles of C, 8 moles of H and 6 moles of O