IChO 1970 · Theory problem 6

Two oxides of the same metal

Oxide of a certain metal contains 22.55 % of oxygen by mass. Another oxide of the same metal contains 50.48 mass % of oxygen.

Problem:
1. What is the relative atomic mass of the metal?

Official English text of the problem.

Answers

  1. The relative atomic mass is approximately 55 (\(A_r\approx54.94\)). The metal is manganese, \(\ce{Mn}\). Relative atomic mass is dimensionless.

Solution

1.

Let the metal have relative atomic mass \(A\) and oxidation states \(n_1\) and \(n_2\) in the two oxides. Taking \(A_r(\ce{O})=16.00\), oxygen’s oxidation state of \(-2\) gives \[ \frac{m(\text{oxygen})}{m(\text{metal})}=\frac{8n}{A}. \]

The oxygen-to-metal mass ratios are therefore \[ \frac{8n_1}{A}=\frac{22.55}{77.45}, \qquad \frac{8n_2}{A}=\frac{50.48}{49.52}. \] Dividing eliminates \(A\): \[ \frac{n_2}{n_1} =\frac{50.48/49.52}{22.55/77.45} =3.50117\approx\frac72. \]

The smallest whole-number oxidation states consistent with this ratio are \(+2\) and \(+7\). Higher proportional pairs would require chemically unreasonable oxidation states for these ordinary metal oxides. Thus the formulas are \(\ce{MO}\) and \(\ce{M2O7}\).

From the first oxide, \[ \frac{16.00}{A+16.00}=0.2255, \] so \[ A=16.00\frac{77.45}{22.55}=54.95. \]

Independently, the second oxide gives \[ \frac{7(16.00)}{2A+7(16.00)}=0.5048, \] hence \[ A=\frac{7(16.00)}{2}\frac{49.52}{50.48}=54.94. \]

These results agree within the rounding of the supplied percentages and identify manganese, with \[ \boxed{A_r(\ce{Mn})\approx54.94\approx55}. \]

The oxides are:

  • Manganese(II) oxide, \(\ce{MnO}\): ionic formula-unit SMILES [Mn+2].[O-2]. The solid forms an extended ionic lattice; this notation does not represent a discrete molecule.
  • Manganese(VII) oxide, \(\ce{Mn2O7}\): SMILES O=[Mn](=O)(=O)O[Mn](=O)(=O)=O. A bridging oxygen joins two approximately tetrahedrally coordinated manganese centres.

As a check, \(A=54.94\) gives oxygen contents of \(22.5543\%\) and \(50.4777\%\), which round to the stated values.

The solution was checked against the official solution.