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Construct equation for hydrogenation of beta carotene.

Beta carotene has 40 carbons and two rings in it's unsaturated structure and is such that 5.98 dm^3 of hydrogen gas reacts with 0.0200mol of Betacarotene at RTP.
Construct a balanced equation for this reaction.

I have just sat the mock exam and are not 100% on the wording etc. but I'm sure this is from june 2017
From what I understand the answer is
C40H56 + 11H2 --> C40H78.
And I get how to determine 11mol H2: 1 mol beta carotene
however how can I deduce the formula for beta carotene? based on the information given in the question.
Original post by ReubenOrion
Beta carotene has 40 carbons and two rings in it's unsaturated structure and is such that 5.98 dm^3 of hydrogen gas reacts with 0.0200mol of Betacarotene at RTP.
Construct a balanced equation for this reaction.

I have just sat the mock exam and are not 100% on the wording etc. but I'm sure this is from june 2017
From what I understand the answer is
C40H56 + 11H2 --> C40H78.
And I get how to determine 11mol H2: 1 mol beta carotene
however how can I deduce the formula for beta carotene? based on the information given in the question.


hydrogenation results in a saturated hydrocarbon, which must have the formula CnH2n+2

However with two rings you lose four hydrogen atoms therefore the product has the formula:

C40H78

Now you use the moles of hydrogen to find out how many double bonds were hydrogenated and work backwards to the formula of beta carotene

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