At first, it seemed like the poison Russian agent might havedigested thallium in

Question

At first, it seemed like the poison Russian agent might havedigested thallium in the form of thallium(I) sulfate, a rodenticide(rat poison), not allowed in the US and Western countries but stillused in other countries. Thallium leads to hair loss. It alsoreplaces potassium in important enzymes in the brain, muscles, andskin. It takes 8.0*10^2 mg of thallium to kill an average adult. Ittook a bit of investigating to figure out that the agent waspoisoned by polonium, a radioactive element, harmful only if itgoes into the body. The radioactivity emitted by polonium, alphaparticles, can be stopped by skin but if ingested it gets into theblood stream, travels to organs and does lots of damage. Themaximum safe body amount of polonium is 7pg (picograms). The agentwas apparently poisoned with about 10 micrograms. To provide theminimum amount of thallium to kill the average adult, how many mLof 0.45 M solution of thallium(I) sulfate needs to be ingested? a) 2.0*10^-3 mL b) 2.2 mL c) 4.4 mL d) 8.8 mL e) 0.23 mL a) 2.0*10^-3 mL b) 2.2 mL c) 4.4 mL d) 8.8 mL e) 0.23 mL

Explanation / Answer

Mass of thalium required = 8.0 * 10^2 mg = 0.8 g Molarity = 0.45 M Thallium (I) sulfate : (Tl)2 SO4 Moles of thalium = mass / atomic mass                          =0.8 g / 204.38 g/mol                          = 0.00391moles . One mole of Thallium sulfate gives two moles of thallium. So moles of thallium sulfate required = 0.00391 /2 = 0.00196moles . Volume of solution required = moles / molarity                                         = 0.00196 moles / 0.45 M                                          =0.00435 L                                         = 4.35 mL ˜ 4.4 mL Ans: (c)

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