Calculate the percentage of water of hydration in barium chloride crystals (the atomic weight of Ba is about 137.4 g/mol)?

1 Answer
Jul 15, 2018

14.75%

Explanation:

You'll need to start off by knowing the formula of the barium chloride crystals, which is barium chloride dihydrate, #BaCl_2 *2H_2O#. From the formula, you'll notice that there are 2 moles of #H_2O# for every mole of the hydrate, #BaCl_2 *2H_2O#.

When the 1 mole of hydrate crystals are heated, you will be left with 1 mole of the anhydrous crystal (#BaCl_2#) and 2 moles of #H_2O#, like this:

#BaCl_2 *2H_2O -> BaCl_2 + 2 H_2O#

To calculate the percentage of water of hydration, we'll need to find the molar mass of water (#H_2O#) and hydrate crystal (#BaCl_2 *2H_2O#).

#"molar mass " H_2O = 2(1.01) + 16.00 = 18.02 " g/mol"#

#"molar mass " BaCl_2 *2H_2O = 137.4 + 2(35.45) + 2[2(1.01) + 16.00] = 244.34 " g/mol"#

We can then proceed to calculating the percentage of water of hydration in barium chloride crystals:
#"Percentage of water of hydration" =(2 xx 18.02 ) / (244.34)*100%=14.75%#