1. Limiting Reactants
Copyright © by Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Benjamin Cummings

2. Limiting Reactant
A limiting reactant in a chemical reaction is the substance that
Is used up first.
Stops the reaction.
Limits the amount of product that can form.

3. Reacting Amounts In a table setting, there is 1
plate, 1 fork, 1 knife, and
1 spoon.
How many table settings are
possible from 5 plates, 6 forks,
4 spoons, and 7 knives?
What is the limiting item?
Copyright © by Pearson Education, Inc.
Publishing as Benjamin Cummings

4. Reacting Amounts Four table settings can be made.
Initially Use Left over
plates
forks
spoons
knives
The limiting item is the spoon.

5. Example of Everyday Limiting Reactant
How many peanut butter sandwiches could be made from 8 slices bread and 1 jar of peanut butter?
With 8 slices of bread, only 4 sandwiches could be made. The bread is the limiting item.
Copyright © by Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings

6. Example of Everyday Limiting Reactant
How many peanut butter sandwiches could be made from 8 slices bread and 1 tablespoon of peanut butter?
With 1 tablespoon of peanut butter, only 1 sandwich could be made. The peanut butter is the limiting item.
Copyright © by Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings

7. Limiting Reactants
When 4.00 mol H2 is mixed with 2.00 mol Cl2,how many moles of HCl can form?
H2(g) Cl(g)  2HCl (g)
4.00 mol mol ??? mol
Calculate the moles of product from each reactant, H2 and Cl2.
The limiting reactant is the one that produces the smaller amount of product.

8. Limiting Reactants Using Mass
Calculate the mass of water produced when 8.00 g H2 and 24.0 g O2 react? 2H2(g) + O2(g) 2H2O(l)

9. Limiting Reactants Using Mass
Calculate the grams of H2 for each reactant.
H2:
8.00 g H2 x 1 mol H2 x 2 mol H2O x g H2O
2.016 g H mol H mol H2O
= 71.5 g H2O (not possible)
O2:
24.0 g O2 x 1 mol O2 x 2 mol H2O x g H2O
32.00 g O mol O mol H2O
= 27.0 g H2O (smaller)
O2 is the limiting reactant.