In a one-person spacecraft, an astronaut exhales 880 g of CO2(g) (molar mass 44 g/mol) per day. To prevent the buildup of CO2(g) in the spacecraft, a device containing LiOH(s) is used to remove the CO

CO2(g) + 2 LiOH(s) → Li2CO3(aq) + H2O(l)

Question: In a one-person spacecraft, an astronaut exhales 880 g of CO2(g) (molar mass 44 g/mol) per day. To prevent the buildup of CO2(g) in the spacecraft, a device containing LiOH(s) is used to remove the CO2(g), as represented by the equation above. What mass of LiOH(s) (molar mass24 g/mol) is needed to react with all of the CO2(g) produced by an astronaut in one day?

(A) 40. g (B) 240 g (C) 480 g (D) 960 g

Solution: This problem has a lot of words and we need to look at the most important pieces of information. We are given 880 g of CO2(g) and are asked to find mass of LiOH.

We can use molar mass of CO2 to convert grams of CO2 to moles of CO2. Then we can use the coefficients in the balanced equation to go from moles of CO2 to moles of LiOH. Finally, we can convert moles of LiOH to grams of LiOH using molar mass given.

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