How many grams of CO2 are produced from 2250 grams of iron (III) oxide, Fe2O3?

Steps to Solve

1. Identify the Chemical Reaction The stoichiometry problem involves the reaction of iron (III) oxide with carbon. The balanced chemical reaction is: $$ 2 \text{Fe}_2\text{O}_3 + 3 \text{C} \rightarrow 4 \text{Fe} + 3 \text{CO}_2 $$

2. Convert Mass of Fe2O3 to Moles To find out how many moles of Fe2O3 you have, you need to use the molar mass of Fe2O3. The molar mass is approximately:

• Iron (Fe): 55.85 g/mol
• Oxygen (O): 16.00 g/mol

The molar mass of Fe2O3 is: $$ 2(55.85) + 3(16.00) = 159.7 , \text{g/mol} $$

So if you have, for example, 318.5 g of Fe2O3: $$ \text{Moles of Fe}_2\text{O}_3 = \frac{318.5 , \text{g}}{159.7 , \text{g/mol}} \approx 1.993 , \text{mol} $$

3. Use Stoichiometry to Find Moles of CO2 From the balanced equation, we see that 2 moles of Fe2O3 produce 3 moles of CO2. Thus, if we have the moles of Fe2O3, we can find the moles of CO2 produced: $$ \text{Moles of CO}_2 = \text{Moles of Fe}_2\text{O}_3 \times \frac{3 , \text{mol CO}_2}{2 , \text{mol Fe}_2\text{O}_3} $$

4. Convert Moles of CO2 to Grams The molar mass of CO2 is:

• Carbon (C): 12.01 g/mol
• Oxygen (O): 16.00 g/mol

Thus, the molar mass of CO2 is: $$ 12.01 + 2(16.00) = 44.01 , \text{g/mol} $$

To find out how many grams of CO2 are produced: $$ \text{Grams of CO}_2 = \text{Moles of CO}_2 \times 44.01 , \text{g/mol} $$

5. Calculate Final Amount of CO2 Plug in the number of moles of CO2 you calculated into the formula to find the final mass of CO2 produced.