Finding the mass!?

Question

The carbon dioxide that is exhaled by astronauts who are on a space shuttle is scrubbed by pumping air through canisters of lithium hydroxide, LiOH. THe chemical equation for this reaction is 2 LiOH + CO2 = Li2CO3 + H2O
a) WHat mass of a carbon dioxide can 1.00 kg of lithium hydroxide absorb?
b) What mass of lithium carbonate, Li2CO3, is produced?
c) Explain why this reaction limits the amount of time that astronauts can spend in space?
Thanks to anyone who can help me with these questions as I am doing this from home and seem to be stuck on this Chapter.

Answer 1

It takes 2 moles of LiOH to react with 1 mole of CO2. The molecular mass of LiOH is 24, therefore 1 kg contains 1000/24 moles of LiOH. This produces 1000/(2*24)=1000/48 moles of CO2. Each mole of CO2 has a mass of 44g, so the total mass of CO2 produced is

1000/48 * 44 = 917 g CO2

The same no of moles of Li2CO3 is produced it's molecular mass is 74, so the mass is

1000/48 * 74 = 1542 g Li2CO3

When all the available LiOH is reacted, no more CO2 can be removed from the internal atmosphere, and the CO2 will rise to dangerous levels.

Answer 2

a) Firstly find how many moles there are in 1 kg of LiOH (use molecular mass of the elements from the periodic table). Then, the amount of CO2 is half of the LiOH amount (in moles). When you find how many moles of CO2 you have, you can again use molecular mass of the elements (carbon & oxygen) in moles /kg. Divide the # of moles by molecular mass.
b) It is almost the same procedure, the number of moles are also equal, only the molecular masses will be different...
c) As I guess, because the exhaled CO2 is united with 2 moles of LiOH, the amount of LiOH within the shuttle determines how much CO2 will be eliminated. When the LiOH is over, the amount of CO2 will rise and the astronauts get drowned by that gas.

Answer 3

a) 0.5kg because it take 2 LiOH to absorb 1 CO2
b)not sure long time since i did chem
c) in the enviroment the astronauts are in pressure will need to be constant so if CO2 is not absorbed O2 will not bereleased because pressure would rise CO2 would overwelm the asronauts and they would suffer hypoxia and die of suffercation if left in that enviroment after the LiOH was saturated

sorry if these are wrong its been a long time since i did chem im a biophysisist

Answer 4

a. .5kgCO2
b. .5kgLi2CO3
c. This limits the amount of time that astronats can spend in space because they will still need to get O2.