Using the appropriate drop-down menu you can choose an output format for the molecular formula: Compare: Co – cobalt is a chemical element and CO – carbon monoxide is a chemical compound. The symbols of chemical elements should be entered using the upper case for the first character and the lower case for the second character (if any). Note that to calculate the molecular formula we can also use percentages instead of masses in grams. This same result we can get in no time simply plugging the masses of the elements into our Molecular Formula Calculator. After rounding this result to a whole number we have n = 6, and obtain the molecular formula of glucose: C 6H 12O 6. Next, we divide the molecular weight of the substance under study by the just found molecular weight of the empirical formula and obtain: 180.16 / 30.026 = 5.954. Using our Molecular Weight Calculator we can easily get 30.026 g/mol. To this end, we first find the molecular weight of the empirical formula, that is, the weight in grams of one mole of a substance having the chemical formula CH 2O. Now, if we know that the molar mass of the compound under study is 180.16 g/mol, we can find the molecular formula of this compound. If we now divide the found numbers of moles by the minimum value of 0.1665 and round to whole values, then we get the following indices for the empirical formula: 1, 2, 1. integer multiples of the subscripts of the empirical formula).Ġ.336 g H / 1.008 (g/mol) H = 0.3333 mol H The molecular formula is always some integer multiple n of the empirical formula (i.e.

Then we consider the number of moles of each element relative to each other, converting these numbers into a whole-number ratio that can be used to derive the empirical formula of the substance. The easiest way to express the number of atoms is in moles.įor this, we have to use molar masses to convert the mass of each element to a number of moles. So, any experimental data involving masses must be used to derive the corresponding numbers of atoms in the compound. The most common approach to determining a compound’s chemical composition is to measure first the masses of its constituent elements. To find the empirical formula of a substance you can use our Empirical Formula Calculator. The empirical formula of a chemical compound is the simplest whole number ratio of atoms present in the compound. The molecular formula should be distinguished from the empirical formula. The molecular formula describes the exact number and type of atoms in a single molecule of a compound.

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