How would you determine the molecular formula of C4H9?

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1 Answer
anor277
Aug 6, 2018

Just to retire this question ... are you sure that it is correctly posed...?

Explanation:

#C_4H_9# is not the formula of anything you could put in a bottle. It is the radical of some butane derivative, i.e. #C_4H_10#..

And so we have (possibly) #"tert-butyl radical"#...#(H_3C)_3C*#, the which is relatively long-lived...

On the other hand, you MIGHT have quoted an empirical formula of #C_4H_9#...to get the molecular formula, we need a measurement of the molecular mass...say we got a mass of #114.22*g*mol^-1#...this would correspond to a molecular formula of #C_8H_18#...and this is a saturated formula...

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