In: Chemistry
If you observe the production of gas what are two different ways you can identify what is the formula of the gas?
Method 1
The simplest method (and of course the costly one ) to identity the gas is to collect the gas and inject in a GC-MS (Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry). This will directly give the peaks in the chromatogram. The parent peak is the molecular weight of the gas and hence we identify the nature of the gas.
Method 2
We can use ideal gas equation i.e. PV = nRT = PV = (m/M)RT
n = m/M = mass / molar mass
So take a known quanity of the gas ( m is known) in a conainter and estimate P, T and V for the system using approrpiate gadgets. Once we have these four parameter (m, P, V, T) we can estimate M, which will given the information about the identity of the gas.