Chemical Forums

Chemistry Forums for Students => Undergraduate General Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: 2617wal on February 16, 2015, 08:25:01 PM

Title: Stuck on a stoichiometry problem
Post by: 2617wal on February 16, 2015, 08:25:01 PM
Not sure to go about solving this, if someone could explain how to go about this, I would very much appreciate it! Thanks!

A tablet is expected to be 30.8% citric acid (H3C6H5O7) and 10.1%  aspirin. How much citric acid would be required to exactly react with all of the sodium bicarbonate in one Alka-Seltzer tablet?     
hint:  citric acid is triprotic, 3 H+'s  per molecule.  You need to re-balance the reaction equation (original equation: NaHCO3 + HCl --> H2O + CO2 + NaCl ).   
hint: you will need to calculate the average mass of an Alka-Seltzer tablet.
Title: Re: Stuck on a stoichiometry problem
Post by: Ciubba on February 16, 2015, 08:47:32 PM
Not sure to go about solving this, if someone could explain how to go about this, I would very much appreciate it! Thanks!

A tablet is expected to be 30.8% citric acid (H3C6H5O7) and 10.1%  aspirin. How much citric acid would be required to exactly react with all of the sodium bicarbonate in one Alka-Seltzer tablet?     
hint:  citric acid is triprotic, 3 H+'s  per molecule.  You need to re-balance the reaction equation (original equation: NaHCO3 + HCl --> H2O + CO2 + NaCl ).   
hint: you will need to calculate the average mass of an Alka-Seltzer tablet.
You need to re-balance the reaction equation (original equation: NaHCO3 + HCl --> H2O + CO2 + NaCl ).   

I would recommend starting there-- you really can't do very much without an equation that describes this reaction.
Title: Re: Stuck on a stoichiometry problem
Post by: Arkcon on February 16, 2015, 09:56:33 PM
And I would start with an equation that actually describes the reaction, HCl is not one of the reactants.