The empirical formula of the anticancer drug altretamine is C3H6N2. A chemist experimentally determines its molar mass to be 214 g/mol. What is the molecular formula for this drug?

Altretamine, whose empirical formula is C₃H₆N₂, has the molecular formula C₉H₁₈N₆.

The empirical formula of a compound gives the simplest ratio of the number of different atoms present, whereas the molecular formula gives the actual number of each different atom present in a molecule.

M(C₃H₆N₂) = 3 × M(C) + 6 × M(H) + 2 × M(N)

M(C₃H₆N₂) = 3 × 12.01 g/mol + 6 × 1.01 g/mol + 2 × 14.01 g/mol

M(C₃H₆N₂) = 70.11 g/mol

"n" is the quotient between the molar mass of the molecular formula and the molar mass of the empirical formula.

n = (214 g/mol)/(70.11 g/mol) ≈ 3

We will multiply the empirical formula by "n".

C₃H₆N₂ × 3 = C₉H₁₈N₆

Altretamine, whose empirical formula is C₃H₆N₂, has the molecular formula C₉H₁₈N₆.

Learn more about empirical and molecular formulas here: link

The molecular formula will be

Explanation:

Molecular formula is the chemical formula which depicts the actual number of atoms of each element present in the compound.

Empirical formula is the simplest chemical formula which depicts the whole number of atoms of each element present in the compound.

To calculate the molecular formula, we need to find the valency which is multiplied by each element to get the molecular formula.

The equation used to calculate the valency is:

empirical mass of

Molecular mass= 214 g/mol

Thus molecular formula will be