Transcript Document
Limiting Reagents
and
Percent Yield
What Is a Limiting Reagent?
• Many cooks follow a recipe when
making a new dish.
• When a cook prepares to cook he/she
needs to know that sufficient amounts
of all the ingredients are available.
• Let’s look at a recipe for the formation
of a double cheeseburger:
1 hamburger bun
1 tomato slice
1 lettuce leaf
2 slices of cheese
2 burger patties
• If you want to make 5 double cheese
burgers:
How many hamburger buns do
you need?
How many hamburger patties
do you need?
How many slices of cheese do
you need?
How many slices of tomato do
you need?
• How many double cheeseburgers can
you make if you start with:
1 bun, 2 patties, 2 slices of
cheese, 1 tomato slice
2 buns, 4 patties, 4 slices of
cheese, 2 tomato slices
1 mole of buns, 2 moles of
patties, 2 moles of cheese,
1 mole of tomato slices
10 buns, 20 patties, 2 slices of
cheese, 10 tomato slices
• We can’t make anymore than 1 double
cheeseburger with our ingredients.
– The slices of cheese limits the number
of cheeseburgers we can make.
• If one of our ingredients gets used up
during our preparation it is called the
limiting reactant (LR)
• The LR limits the amount of product
we can form; in this case double
cheeseburgers.
• It is equally impossible for a chemist
to make a certain amount of a desired
compound if there isn’t enough of one
of the reactants.
• As we’ve been learning, a balanced
chemical rxn is a chemist’s recipe.
– Which allows the chemist to predict
the amount of product formed from
the amounts of ingredients available
• Let’s look at the reaction equation for
the formation of ammonia:
N2(g) + 3H2(g) 2NH3(g)
• When 1 mole of N2 reacts with 3 moles of
H2, 2 moles of NH3 are produced.
• How much NH3 could be made if 2 moles
of N2 were reacted with 3 moles of H2?
N2(g) + 3H2(g) 2NH3(g)
• The amount of H2 limits the amount of
NH3 that can be made.
– From the amount of N2 available we
can make 4 moles of NH3
– From the amount of H2 available we
can only make 2 moles of NH3.
• H2 is our limiting reactant here.
– It runs out before the N2 is used up.
• Therefore, at the end of the reaction
there should be N2 left over.
– When there is reactant left over it is
said to be in excess.
• How much N2 will be left over after
the reaction?
– In our rxn it takes 1 mol of N2 to react
all of 3 mols of H2, so there must be
1 mol of N2 that remains unreacted.
• We can use our new stoich calculation
skills to determine 3 possible types of
LR type calculations.
1. Determine which of the reactants
will run out first (limiting reactant)
2. Determine amount of product
3. Determine how much is in excess (is
wasted)
Limiting Reactant Problems:
Given the following reaction:
2Cu + S Cu2S
• What is the limiting reactant when
82.0 g of Cu reacts with 25.0 g S?
• What is the maximum amount of Cu2S
that can be formed?
• How much of the other reactant is in
excess?
• Our 1st goal is to calculate how much S
would react if all of the Cu was
reacted.
• From that we can determine the
limiting reactant (LR).
• Then we can use the Limiting Reactant
to calculate the amount of product
formed and the amount of excess
reactant left over.
82g Cu mol Cu mol S g S
Molar
Mass
Mole/Mole
Ratio
Molar
Mass
2Cu + S Cu2S
82.0gCu
1molCu
1mol S
32.1g S
63.5gCu
2molCu
1mol S
=20.7 g S
•So if all of our 82.0g of Copper were
reacted completely it would require
only 20.7 grams of Sulfur.
– Since we initially had 25g of S, we are
going to run out of the Cu, the limiting
reactant) & end up with 4.3 grams of S
• Copper being our Limiting Reactant is
then used to determine how much
product is produced.
– The amount of Copper we initially start
with limits the amount of product we
can make.
1molCu 1molCu2S ________
159gCu2S
82.0gCu
63.5gCu 2molCu2S 1molCu2S
= 103 g Cu2S
• So the reaction between 82.0g of Cu
and 25.0g of S can only produce 103g
of Cu2S.
– The Cu runs out before the S and we
will end up with 4.7 g of the S in
excess.
Ex 2: Hydrogen gas can be produced in
the lab by the rxn of Magnesium metal
with HCl according to the following rxn
equation: Mg + 2HCl MgCl2 + H2
− What is the LR when 6.0 g HCl reacts
with 5.0 g Mg? What is the maximum
amount of H2 that can be formed? And
how much of the other reactant is in
excess?
5.0g Mg mol Mg 2mol HCl g HCl
5.0g Mg
1molMg
2molHCl
36.5gHCl
24.3gMg
1molMg
1molHCl
= 15.0g HCl
• So if 5.0g of Mg were used up it would
take 15.0g HCl, but we only had 6.0g
of HCl to begin with.
− Therefore, the 6.0g of HCl will run out
before the 5.0g of Mg, so HCl is our
Limiting Reactant.
6.0g HCl2mol HCl 1mol H2 g H2
6.0g HCl
1molHCl
1molH2
2.0gH2
36.5gHCl
2molHCl
1molH2
= 0.164 g H2 produced
6.0g HCl2mol HCl 1mol Mg g Mg
6.0g HCl
1molHCl
1molMg
24.3gMg
36.5gHCl
2molHCl
1molMg
=1.997 g Mg - 5.0 g Mg= 3.01g Mg in excess
Calculating Percent Yield
• In theory, when a teacher gives an
exam to the class, every student
should get a grade of 100%.
• Your exam grade, expressed as a percent, is a quantity that shows how well
you did on the exam compared with
how well you could have done if you
had answered all questions correctly
• This calc is similar to the percent yield
calc that you do in the lab when the
product from a chemical rxn is less
than you expected based on the
balanced eqn.
• You might have assumed that if we use
stoich to calculate that our rxn will
produce 5.2 g of product, that we will
actually recover 5.2 g of product in
the lab.
• This assumption is as faulty as
assuming that all students will score
100% on an exam.
• When an equation is used to calculate
the amount of product that is possible
during a rxn, a value representing the
theoretical yield is obtained.
• The theoretical yield is the maximum
amount of product that could be
formed from given amounts of
reactants.
• In contrast, the amount of product
that forms when the rxn is carried out
in the lab is called the actual yield.
• The actual yield is often less than the
theoretical yield.
• The percent yield is the ratio of the
actual yield to the theoretical yield as
a percent
– It measures the measures the
efficiency of the reaction
Percent yield=
actual yield
theoretical yield
x 100
• What causes a percent yield to be less
than 100%?
• Rxns don’t always go to completion;
when this occurs, less than the
expected amnt of product is formed.
– Impure reactants and competing side
rxns may cause unwanted products to
form.
– Actual yield can also be lower than
the theoretical yield due to a loss of
product during filtration or
transferring between containers.
– If a wet precipitate is recovered it
might weigh heavy due to incomplete
drying, etc.
Calcium carbonate is synthesized by
heating,as shown in the following
equation: CaO + CO2 CaCO3
• What is the theoretical yield of CaCO3
if 24.8 g of CaO is heated with 43.0 g
of CO2?
• What is the percent yield if 33.1 g of
CaCO3 is produced?
Determine which reactant
is the limiting and then decide
what the theoretical yield is.
24.8gCaOmolCaO mol CO2 gCO2
24.8 g 1molCaO 1mol CO2
CaO 56g CaO 1mol CaO
LR
44 g CO2
1molCO2
= 19.5gCO2
24.8gCaOmolCaO mol CaCO3gCaCO3
24.8 g 1mol CaO 1molCaCO3 100g CaCO3
CaO 56g CaO 1mol CaO 1molCaCO3
= 44.3 g CaCO3
• CaO is our LR, so the reaction should
theoretically produce 44.3 g of CaCO3
(How efficient were we?)
• Our percent yield is:
Percent yield=
33.1 g CaCO3
_____________
x 100
44.3 g CaCO3
Percent yield = 74.7%