Determine the empirical formulas for the compounds with the following percent composition: 28.5% iron, 48.6% oxygen, and 22.9% 2.9% sulfur Fe_(2)S_(3)O_(6) Fe_(2)S_(4)O_(8) Fe_(3)S_(3)O_(9) Fe_(2)S_(3)O_(12)

To determine the empirical formula for the compound with the given percent composition, we need to convert the percentages to grams and then to moles.<br /><br />Given:<br />- 28.5% iron (Fe)<br />- 48.6% oxygen (O)<br />- 22.9% sulfur (S)<br /><br />Assume we have 100 grams of the compound. This means we have:<br />- 28.5 grams of Fe<br />- 48.6 grams of O<br />- 22.9 grams of S<br /><br />Next, we convert the masses to moles using the molar masses of each element:<br />- Molar mass of Fe = 55.85 g/mol<br />- Molar mass of O = 16.00 g/mol<br />- Molar mass of S = 32.07 g/mol<br /><br />Calculate the moles of each element:<br />- Moles of Fe = 28.5 g / 55.85 g/mol = 0.511 moles<br />- Moles of O = 48.6 g / 16.00 g/mol = 3.0375 moles<br />- Moles of S = 22.9 g / 32.07 g/mol = 0.714 moles<br /><br />Now, we need to find the simplest whole number ratio of the moles of each element. To do this, we divide each mole value by the smallest mole value among them:<br />- Smallest mole value = 0.511 moles (Fe)<br /><br />Divide each mole value by 0.511:<br />- Fe: 0.511 / 0.511 = 1<br />- O: 3.0375 / 0.511 = 5.95 ≈ 6<br />- S: 0.714 / 0.511 = 1.4 ≈ 1<br /><br />The ratio of Fe:O:S is approximately 1:6:1. Therefore, the empirical formula for the compound is FeO6S.<br /><br />Among the given options, the correct empirical formula is Fe2S3O6.