Question

Calculate the mass percentage of different elements in calcium phosphate.

Answer 1

Hint: The mass percentage is the mass of elements divided by the molar mass of the compound. Here, the given compound to us is calcium phosphate and its formula is $C{{a}_{3}}{{(P{{O}_{4}})}_{2}}$. We can find the molar mass and then divide the mass of each component by the total mass to get the answer.

Complete answer:
To find the mass percentage of different elements in calcium phosphate we need to know the elements present in calcium phosphate and to know that we need to know the formula of calcium phosphate, which is $C{{a}_{3}}{{(P{{O}_{4}})}_{2}}$.
We know that mass percentage can be calculated by dividing the mass of the element by the total mass of the compound.
Now that we know the formula of calcium phosphate, we can find out the mass percentage of its elements.
Firstly, we need to find out the total mass of the compound which is the molar mass.
So, molar mass of $C{{a}_{3}}{{(P{{O}_{4}})}_{2}}$= ($3\times $atomic mass of calcium) + ($2\times $atomic mass of phosphorus) + ($8\times $atomic mass of oxygen)
We know that atomic mass of calcium = 40, phosphorus = 31 and that of oxygen = 16.
Therefore, putting the values we get, molar mass of $C{{a}_{3}}{{(P{{O}_{4}})}_{2}}$= 120+62+128 = 310.
Therefore, the mass percentage of calcium in calcium phosphate = $\dfrac{120}{310}\times 100=38.71%$.
Similarly, the mass percentage of phosphorus in calcium phosphate = $\dfrac{62}{310}\times 100=20%$.
And the mass percentage of oxygen in calcium phosphate = $\dfrac{128}{310}\times 100=41.29%$.
Therefore, we can write that the mass percentage of all the elements in calcium phosphate is 38.71% calcium, 20% phosphorous and 41.29% oxygen.

Note: We can say that mass percentage is a way of defining the concentration of a particular element in the given compound. Over here it explains the amount of each element present in calcium phosphate.