To answer this, we can start at the end and see what we need to calculate it.
We want the number of moles of CO₂ produced. From the chemical equation, we can see that the coefficient of O₂ is 2 and of CO₂ is 1, so wwe need to apply thsi stoichiometry:
CO₂ --- O₂
1 --- 2
[tex]\begin{gathered} \frac{n_{CO_2}}{1}=\frac{n_{O_2}}{2} \\ n_{CO_2}=\frac{n_{O_2}}{2} \end{gathered}[/tex]The number of moles of O₂ can be calculated from the mass o O₂ and its molar mass:
[tex]\begin{gathered} M_{O_{2}}=\frac{m_{O_2}}{n_{O_{2}}} \\ n_{O_{2}}=\frac{m_{O_2}}{M_{O_{2}}} \\ n_{CO_{2}}=\frac{n_{O_2}}{2}=\frac{m_{O_2}}{2M_{O_{2}}} \end{gathered}[/tex]We already have the mass of O₂, but we need to calculate its molar mass:
[tex]M_{O_2}=2\cdot M_O=2\cdot15.9994g/mol=31.9988g/mol[/tex]Now, substituting the values, we have:
[tex]n_{CO_2}=\frac{m_{O_{2}}}{2M_{O_{2}}}=\frac{46g}{2\cdot31.9988g/mol}=\frac{23}{31.9988}mol=0.7187\ldots mol\approx0.72mol[/tex]So, the number of moles of CO₂, assuming complete reaction, is approximately 0.72 mol.
