This problem is providing the percent composition of potassium, carbon and oxygen in a compound containing these three elements as well as its molar mass. The molecular formula is required and found to be K₂C₂O₄ due to the following work:
Molecular formulas:
In chemistry, molecular formulas are used to represent the types and number of atoms in a compound, based on the elements across the periodic table. In addition, the subscripts stand for the number of atoms.
Calculations:
At first instance, one must determine the empirical formula (smallest version of the molecular one) based on the percent composition and atomic mass of each element, in order to figure out the moles of each atom:
[tex]K:\frac{47.2g}{39.1g/mol} =1.2\\\\C:\frac{14.5g}{12.01g/mol}=1.2\\\\O:\frac{38.5g}{16.0g/mol}=2.4[/tex]
Now, we divide each result by 1.2, as the fewest number of moles, in order to figure out the subscripts in the empirical formula:
[tex]K:\frac{1.2}{1.2} =1\\\\C:\frac{1.2}{1.2} =1\\\\O:\frac{2.4}{1.2} =2[/tex]
So that the empirical formula is KCO₂ whose molar mass is 83.11 g/mol which is twice in the given molar mass, which means we must double the empirical formula to get the molecular one:
K₂C₂O₄
Learn more about empirical formulas: https://brainly.com/question/1247523
