Name: ___________________________

Report Form:

Review:
In this case, an older model car is involved in an accident, and while the airbag deployed, the
driver died of severe head trauma. The airbag in question relied on sodium azide as the
principal gas generant to inflate the airbag with nitrogen gas through a decomposition reaction.
However, the decomposition of sodium azide alone cannot inflate the bag fast enough and the
sodium metal produced by the reaction is dangerous. It explodes in water!

Therefore, oxidizers such as potassium nitrate are included with the gas generant so that they
can immediately react with the sodium metal. This exothermic reaction raises the temperature
more than 100° so that the gas fills the bag faster. Thus, there are three reactions in all:

2NaN3  2Na +3N2

10Na +2KNO3  K2O +5Na2O +N2

K2O +Na2O +SiO2  Na2K2SiO4

The first two reactions both produce nitrogen gas that inflates the bag.

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1. Company vehicle records indicate that 143g of sodium azide was placed in the air bag
during production. How many moles of nitrogen gas will be produced by the rapid
decomposition of the azide in the first reaction: 2NaN3  2Na +3N2?

2. How many moles of sodium metal will be produced?

3. What volume of nitrogen gas do you expect to be produced by the azide decomposition? (Hint:
1 mole of ANY gas occupies 22.4 L)

4. The air bag involved in the crash is considered fully inflated at 77.4 L of gas. Was there enough
nitrogen gas generated from the reaction to fully inflate the air bag?

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To determine if this airbag was faulty and caused the fatality you also need to know:
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The data are in!

Good idea! Your team requested the grams of KNO3 placed in the airbag.

An unnamed inside source has given you this sticky-note:

Given this new information:

How many moles of nitrogen gas will be produced by the 15 g of KNO3 in the secondary
reaction?
10Na +2KNO3  K2O +5Na2O +N2

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Was more gas produced by the first reaction or the secondary reactions?

What is the total number of moles of nitrogen gas produced by all of the reactions?

Which were the limiting reagent(s)?

What happened to this airbag? Before you can face the jury, complete the airbag
deployment report:

AIRBAG DEPLOYMENT REPORT

QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS:
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