Abstract
Determining the molar mass of gases or easily vaporized liquids is described in virtually all first-year college chemistry texts to a greater or lesser extent, and is an appropriate activity to engage students once they have been exposed to the gas laws. The Dumas method provides a relatively simple way to determine the molar mass of volatile chemical compounds. This paper alerts readers to a potential source of error in one approach to the Dumas method as it is often practiced in introductory chemistry laboratories. The room-temperature vapor pressures of volatile compounds that might be considered as unknowns for the experiment lead to determined molar masses that are too low. The greater the vapor pressure of the compound, the lower the determined molar mass will be, when compared to the accepted value.
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