Given,
The percentage composition of hydrogen is 4.07%.
The percentage composition of carbon is 24.27%.
The percentage composition of oxygen is 17.65%.
We can write the steps for determining the empirical formula of a compound as follows:
The molar mass of hydrogen is \(1 \mathrm{~g} / \mathrm{mol}\).
The molar mass of carbon is \(12 \mathrm{~g} / \mathrm{mol}\).
The molar mass of oxygen is \(35.5 \mathrm{~g} / \mathrm{mol}\).
The moles of the element are calculated using the mass divided by their molar mass. We can write the expression to calculate of moles of an element as,
Moles of element \(=\frac{\text { Mass }}{\text { Molecular mass }}\)
We can calculate the moles of each element now,
The moles of hydrogen atom \(=\frac{4.07 g}{1 \mathrm{~g} / \mathrm{mol}}=4.07\) moles
The moles of carbon atom \(=\frac{24.27 \mathrm{~g}}{12 \mathrm{~g} / \mathrm{mol}}=2.02 \) moles
The moles of oxygen atom \(=\frac{71.65 g}{35.5 g / m o l}=2.01\) moles
The moles of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen are \(4.07\) moles, \(2.02\) moles and\(2.01\) moles respectively.
Let us now divide all values with least value obtained,
\(H=\frac{4.07}{2.01}=2\)
\(C=\frac{2.02}{2.01}=1\)
\(C l=\frac{2.01}{2.01}=1\)
We can write the empirical formula of the compound as \(C H_{2} C l\).