Limiting Reactants and Percent Yield Reactions are rarely carried out with exactly the required amount of each reactants In most reactions, one or more reactants is in excess.
Limiting Reactants Limiting reactant: The substance that runs out first. Excess reactant: The substance that is left over after the reaction So…If you have 50 bicycle frames and 80 bicycle wheels, how many bicycles can be made. What limits the number of bicycles?
Why Use an Excess Reactant? To ensure that the other reactant is completely used up Cheaper and easier to recycle
Steps for determining Limiting Reactants Write a balanced equation For each reactant, calculate the amount of product formed Smallest answer indicates: Limiting reactant Amount of product
excess limiting amount produced Ex 1) 79.1 g Zn reacts with 82.0 g HCl. Identify the limiting and excess reactants. How much hydrogen will be formed? Zn + 2HCl → ZnCl2 + H2 excess 79.1 g Zn 1 mol Zn 1 mol H2 2 g H2 = 2.42 g H2 65.39 g Zn 1 mol Zn 1 mol H2 82. g HCl 1 mol HCl 1 mol H2 2 g H2 = 1.13 g H2 36.46 g HCl 2 mol HCl 1 mol H2 limiting amount produced
amount produced limiting excess Ex 2) 54.7 g Zn reacts with 65.3 g HCl. Identify the limiting and excess reactants. How much hydrogen will be formed? Zn + 2HCl → ZnCl2 + H2 amount produced limiting 54.7 g Zn 1 mol Zn 1 mol H2 2 g H2 = 1.67 g H2 65.39 g Zn 1 mol Zn 1 mol H2 65.3 g HCl 1 mol HCl 1 mol H2 2 g H2 = 1.79 g H2 36.46 g HCl 2 mol HCl 1 mol H2 excess
Percent Yield Batting average in baseball is a measurement of the percent of times a player successfully completes a time at bat.
Percent Yield Similar calculations show success of a chemical reaction. Why? most reactions do not produce the predicted amount of product. Reactions fail to go to completion Liquid adheres to containers or evaporates Solids get stuck in filter paper or lost in the purification process.
Percent Yield Theoretical yield- the amount that should be produced. (found by stoichiometry) Actual yield- the amount that is actually produced. (found by experimentation) Percent yield- the percent you actually got
Percent Yield
Percent Yield Ex3) If the theoretical yield is 57.3 g P4O10, the reaction experimentally produced 52.5 g. What is the percent yield? Sometimes you must first calculate the theoretical yield (stoichiometry)