Chemistry
Discover how to flex your chemistry muscles and your knowledge of the mole as you learn to calculate limiting and excess reactants and predict the yield of a chemical reaction.
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After completing this tutorial, you will be able to complete the following:
What is the limiting reactant in a chemical reaction?
~ The limiting reactant is the reactant that is completely used up. Because of its quantity, it limits the amount of products formed.
What is the excess reactant in a chemical reaction?
~ The excess reactant in a chemical reaction is the reactant that is not used up when the reaction is finished.
In the reaction between nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas to produce ammonia, which reactant is the limiting reactant? Which reactant is the excess reactant? How do you know?
~ In the reaction between nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas, nitrogen gas is the limiting reactant and hydrogen gas is the excess reactant because once the nitrogen is used up, there are still 11 moles of hydrogen gas left over.
How is mass calculated if the number of excess moles are known?
~ By multiplying the excess number of moles of a reactant by the element's molar mass, the mass of the excess reactant can be determined.
Approximate Time | 2 Minutes |
Pre-requisite Concepts | Students should be familiar with chemistry, excess reactant, and limiting reactant. |
Course | Chemistry |
Type of Tutorial | Animation |
Key Vocabulary | chemistry, excess reactant, limiting reactant |