How many grams of sodium azide are needed to provide sufficient nitrogen gas to fill a 50.0 × 50.0 × 25.0 cm bag to a pressure of 1.15 atm at 25.0 °C? 

1 Answer
Jul 29, 2017

127127 "g NaN"_3g NaN3

Explanation:

We're asked to find the mass, in "g"g, of sodium azide ("NaN"_3NaN3) needed to produce a certain amount of "N"_2N2.

To do this, we can use the ideal gas equation to find the moles of nitrogen gas present:

PV = nRTPV=nRT

  • P = 1.15P=1.15 "atm"atm (given)

  • VV must be in liters, so we can find the volume first in "cm"^3cm3 and then convert:

50.0 xx 50.0 xx 25.0 = 6250050.0×50.0×25.0=62500 "cm"^3cm3

62500cancel("cm"^3)((1cancel("mL"))/(1cancel("cm"^3)))((1color(white)(l)"L")/(10^3cancel("mL"))) = 62.5 "L"

  • R is the universal gas constant, equal to 0.082057("L"·"atm")/("mol"·"K")

  • T = 25.0 ""^"o""C", which must be in Kelvin:

T = 25.0 ""^"o""C" + 273 = 298 "K"

Plugging in known values, and solving for the number of moles, n, we have

n = (PV)/(RT) = ((1.15cancel("atm"))(62.5cancel("L")))/((0.082057(cancel("L")·cancel("atm"))/("mol"·cancel("K")))(298cancel("K"))) = color(red)(2.94 color(red)("mol N"_2

Now, we can use the coefficients of the chemical equation to find the relative number of moles of sodium azide that must react:

color(red)(2.94)cancel(color(red)("mol N"_2))((2color(white)(l)"mol NaN"_3)/(3cancel("mol N"_2))) = color(green)(1.96 color(green)("mol NaN"_3

Finally, we can use the molar mass of sodium azide (65.01 "g/mol") to find the mass in grams:

color(green)(1.96)cancel(color(green)("mol NaN"_3))((65.01color(white)(l)"g NaN"_3)/(1cancel("mol NaN"_3))) = color(blue)(ul(127color(white)(l)"g NaN"_3