[RiceKernel]

Hi!
I have a test coming tomorrow and I can't figure this problem out :

0.77mg sample of nitrogen reacts with chlorine to form 6.61 mg of the chloride . Determine the empirical formula of nitrogen chloride.

Don't worry, I've tried this problem. I found N5Cl17 but the answer in the books says NCl3

What did I do wrong? I transformed 0.77mg to gram and then mols than I did the same thing using 6.61mg of chlorine and transformed it into mols then divide the smallest mol number ...

[sjb]

Hi!
I have a test coming tomorrow and I can't figure this problem out :

0.77mg sample of nitrogen reacts with chlorine to form 6.61 mg of the chloride . Determine the empirical formula of nitrogen chloride.

Don't worry, I've tried this problem. I found N5Cl17 but the answer in the books says NCl3

What did I do wrong? I transformed 0.77mg to gram and then mols than I did the same thing using 6.61mg of chlorine and transformed it into mols then divide the smallest mol number ...

It's not 6.61 mg of chlorine, but of the chloride. Write a balanced equation of the form nitrogen + chlorine -> NCl_x and see where that goes

[AWK]

NCl₃ cannot be obtained by a direct reaction of nitrogen with chlorine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_trichloride