Questions: This is the chemical formula for nickel tetracarbonyl (a powerfully poisonous liquid used in nickel refining): Ni(CO)4 A chemical engineer has determined by measurements that there are 16. moles of nickel in a sample of nickel tetracarbonyl. How many moles of carbon are in the sample? Be sure your answer has the correct number of significant digits.

This is the chemical formula for nickel tetracarbonyl (a powerfully poisonous liquid used in nickel refining):
Ni(CO)4

A chemical engineer has determined by measurements that there are 16. moles of nickel in a sample of nickel tetracarbonyl. How many moles of carbon are in the sample?

Be sure your answer has the correct number of significant digits.

Transcript text: This is the chemical formula for nickel tetracarbonyl (a powerfully poisonous liquid used in nickel refining): \[ \mathrm{Ni}(\mathrm{CO})_{4} \] A chemical engineer has determined by measurements that there are 16. moles of nickel in a sample of nickel tetracarbonyl. How many moles of carbon are in the sample? Be sure your answer has the correct number of significant digits.

Solution

Solution Steps

Step 1: Determine the Mole Ratio

Nickel tetracarbonyl has the chemical formula \(\mathrm{Ni}(\mathrm{CO})_{4}\). This means that for every 1 mole of \(\mathrm{Ni}\), there are 4 moles of \(\mathrm{CO}\).

Step 2: Calculate the Moles of Carbon

Since each \(\mathrm{CO}\) molecule contains 1 carbon atom, the number of moles of carbon is the same as the number of moles of \(\mathrm{CO}\).

Given that there are 16 moles of \(\mathrm{Ni}\), we can use the mole ratio to find the moles of \(\mathrm{CO}\): \[ \text{Moles of } \mathrm{CO} = 4 \times \text{Moles of } \mathrm{Ni} = 4 \times 16 = 64 \text{ moles} \]

Step 3: Confirm Significant Digits

The given number of moles of nickel (16. moles) has 2 significant digits. Therefore, our final answer should also have 2 significant digits.