UTS SCH 3UE

Unit 3: Quantities in Chemical Reactions

3.4 Lesson: Limiting Reagent & Percent Yield
Warm Up

Imagine you and your friends are making hot dogs. A complete hot dog consists of a wiener and
a bun. At the store, you buy 1 package of 5 wieners and 1 bag of 4 buns.

1. How many total hot dogs can you make? _______________________

2. Which ingredient limited the number of hot dogs you could make? _______________________

3. Which ingredient will you have leftovers of? _______________________

Part A: Limiting Reactant

In most chemical reactions, only _________ of the reactants is completely consumed. This reactant is known as

the __________________. Any reactant which is not completely consumed is present in _______________.

EXAMPLE 1 (Given Moles): Consider the reaction 2 H2 (g) + O2 (g) → 2 H2O (l).

A. If you have 4 moles of hydrogen & 3 moles of oxygen, which is the limiting reagent?

B. How many moles of water can you make with the quantities from Part A?

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 UTS SCH 3UE

Unit 3: Quantities in Chemical Reactions

3.4 Lesson: Limiting Reagent & Percent Yield
EXAMPLE 2 (Given Mass): Iron and sulphur react to form iron (II) sulfide. Suppose that 14.0 g of Fe and 12.0 g of sulphur
are available for the reaction. You want to know which reactant will be completely used up and how much will remain from
the excess reagent.

Step 1 (write out the BALANCED chemical equation)

Step 2 (find out how many moles of each reactant are actually available)

Step 3 (from the chemical reaction and the moles available determine what the limiting reagent by dividing the moles
calculated in step 2, but the molar coefficient)

Step 4 use the mole ratio in the chemical reaction to determine the number of moles of product based on the limiting
reagent you determined in step 3

Step 5 (convert the moles of product to mass)

Step 6 (determine the mass of the excess reagent if required)

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 UTS SCH 3UE

Unit 3: Quantities in Chemical Reactions

3.4 Lesson: Limiting Reagent & Percent Yield
LR Practice 1:
A. How many grams of CO2 will be produced when 8.50 g of CH4 are completely combusted in 15.9 g of O2?

B. How much remains of the reagent given in excess (ie. the non-limiting reagent - how much is leftover?)

LR Practice 2: White phosphorus, P4, consists of a molecule made up of four phosphorus atoms. It is an allotrope of
phosphorus. It burns in pure oxygen to produce tetraphosphorus decaoxide. 1.00 g of white phosphorus is burned in a
flask filled with 2.60 x 1023 molecules of oxygen gas. What mass of tetraphosphorus decaoxide is produced?

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 UTS SCH 3UE

Unit 3: Quantities in Chemical Reactions

3.4 Lesson: Limiting Reagent & Percent Yield
Part B: The Percent Yield & Percent Error of a Chemical Reaction

● The theoretical yield is the maximum amount of a ________________ that can form in a chemical reaction.

● The theoretical yield is calculated by assuming that all of the _______________ reagent has reacted to form the
product. During an experiment, why might we discover that this assumption is not true. It’s in THEORY!

● The _____________ ________________ is the amount of a product that is actually obtained from a chemical
reaction. For the reasons that we have given actual yield is almost always less than the theoretical yield.

● Theoretical yield is a calculated quantity and the actual yield is an experimentally determined quantity.

● The ___________ ____________ is the actual yield expressed as a percentage of the theoretical yield by the
equation:

If impure reactants are used, the percentage purity of the produce may be compromised. The percentage purity defines
what proportion, by mass, of a sample is composed of a specific compound

e.g. If a sample of gold ore is said to be 98% pure, a 100g sample would contain how much gold?

(0.98) x (100g sample gold) = 98g gold

Example 1: Suppose 7.00 g of AgNO3 is added to a solution which contains an excess of dissolved KBr. If 7.32 g of AgBr is
obtained, what is the percent yield?

Example 2: A mass of 4.55 g of NaOH is dissolved in water and 3.20 g of gaseous H2S is bubbled in. The following
reaction takes place:
H2S (g) + 2 NaOH → Na2S (aq) + 2 H2O(l)
If 3.92 g of Na2S is recovered from the reaction mixture what is the percent yield?

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 UTS SCH 3UE

Unit 3: Quantities in Chemical Reactions

3.4 Lesson: Limiting Reagent & Percent Yield
Percent Error is calculated using the equation:

Example 3: What is the percent error in examples 1 and 2?

Example 4: If 189 g of lead (II) sulfide was actually obtained in a reaction for which the theoretical yield was 239 g,
calculate the percentage error.

Example 5: Calcium carbonate can be thermally decomposed to calcium oxide and carbon dioxide. Under certain
conditions, this reaction proceeds with a 92.4% yield of calcium oxide. How many grams of calcium oxide can the chemist
expect to obtain if 12.4 g of calcium carbonate is heated? (Hint: Determine how many grams of calcium oxide is produced
from 12.4g, then, multiply that value by your percent yield for the reaction)

Example 6: One of the reactions used in the smelting of copper ores to produce copper involves reacting copper (I) oxide
with copper (II) sulfide. When 250.0 kg of copper (I) oxide is heated with 129.0 kg of copper (II) sulfide, 285.0 kg of copper
are recovered with some sulfur dioxide gas. Determine the percentage yield of copper. (Hint: Need to determine the
limiting reagent first).

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 UTS SCH 3UE

Unit 3: Quantities in Chemical Reactions

3.4 Lesson: Limiting Reagent & Percent Yield
CHALLENGE: Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) C9H8O4 is the chemical name for an analgesic whose common name is Aspirin.

It is manufactured by heating salicylic acid C7H6O3 with acetic anhydride C4H6O3 which produces acetylsalicylic acid (ASA)
and acetic acid C2H4O2.

If 2.00 g of salicylic acid is heated with 4.00 g of acetic anhydride and the actual yield is 2.09 g of ASA, what is the
percentage yield? (Hint: Write out the equation first, then determine the LR)

Part C: Think you got it? Try These….

1) The following reaction proceeds with a 70% yield:

C6H6(l) + HNO3(aq) → C6H5NO2(l) + H2O(l)

Calculate the mass of C6H5NO2 is expected if 12.8 g of C6H6 reacts with excess HNO3?

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 UTS SCH 3UE

Unit 3: Quantities in Chemical Reactions

3.4 Lesson: Limiting Reagent & Percent Yield
2) An impure sample of silver nitrate, AgNO3, has a mass of 0.340 g. It is dissolved in water and then treated with
excess hydrogen chloride, HCl(aq). This results in the formation of a precipitate of silver chloride, AgCl.

AgNO3(aq) + HCl(aq) → AgCl(s) + HNO3(aq)

The silver chloride is filtered, and any remaining hydrogen chloride is washed away. The silver chloride is then dried. If the
mass of the dry silver chloride is measured to be 0.213 g, what mass of silver nitrate was contained in the original
(impure) sample?

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 UTS SCH 3UE

Unit 3: Quantities in Chemical Reactions

3.4 Lesson: Limiting Reagent & Percent Yield
For questions 3-6, use the following unbalanced equation: N2H4 + N2O4 → N2 + H2O

3) If you have 18.6 moles of N2H4, how many moles of N2 could you produce?

4) What mass of N2O4 is required to fully react with 64.3 g of N2H4?

5) If you reacted 413 g of N2H4 and 705 g of N2O4:

a) Which is the limiting reagent?

b) How much nitrogen is produced? How much water is produced?

c) What is the percentage yield of nitrogen if you obtain 622 g of N2 after the reaction?

d) What is the percentage yield of water if you obtain 469 g of water after the reaction?

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 UTS SCH 3UE

Unit 3: Quantities in Chemical Reactions

3.4 Lesson: Limiting Reagent & Percent Yield
6) You perform an experiment, in the end your dried product has a percentage yield that is less than 100%. Give some
potential reasons (sources of error) for this result.

Part C Answers:

1) 14.1 g
2) 0.252 g
3) nN2 = 27.9 mol
4) mN2O4 = 92.4 g
5) a) N2H4 is the limiting reactant (413 g N2H4 → 633 g N2O4 OR 705 g N2O4 → 460 g N2H4).
b) mN2 = 541 g, mH2O = 464 g
c) PYN2 = 107.6%
d) PYH2O = 94.7%
6) If your yield is less than 100%, some of the following things could have gone wrong in your lab: spilled product, competing side reaction, impure
reactant

Full Solution to Question 1 in part C:

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 UTS SCH 3UE

Unit 3: Quantities in Chemical Reactions

3.4 Lesson: Limiting Reagent & Percent Yield
Part D: Additional % Yield Practice

1. The equation for the synthesis of bromobenzene from bromine and benzene is

C6H6 (l) + Br2(l) → C6H5Br(l) + HBr(g)

A 12.85 g yield of bromobenzene was obtained when 8.00 g of benzene and excess bromine were combined.
What is the theoretical yield for this reaction? What is the percent yield?

2. Copper (I) sulfide forms when copper is heated in excess sulfur. If 99.8 g of copper was heated in excess sulfur,
and 50.0 g of copper (I) sulfide was obtained, what is the percent yield for this reaction?

3. Lye, or caustic soda, (NaOH) is prepared commercially by passing an electric current through a concentrated
solution of sodium chloride and water. The other products of the reaction are hydrogen and chlorine gas.
Calculate the theoretical yield of lye if 125 kg of sodium chloride is electrolyzed. If 55.4 kg of lye is produced, what
it the percent yield for the reaction?

4. Chlorobenzene is a starting material for the production of aspirin and other related compounds and is prepared by
reacting benzene with chlorine gas. The other product of the reaction is hydrogen chloride gas. If a 10.0 kg
sample of benzene is treated with excess chlorine and yields 10.4 kg of chlorobenzene, what is the percent yield?

5. Freon-12 (CCl2F2) is a gas that has been used as a refrigerant. It is prepared by the reaction between carbon
tetrachloride and antimony trifluoride. Antimony trichloride is the other product of the reaction. If the percent yield
of this reaction is 72.0%, how many grams of antimony trifluoride must be combined in excess carbon
tetrachloride to obtain a yield of 25.0 g of Freon-12?

6. Acetic acid can be prepared by heating methanol with carbon monoxide in the presences of a catalyst. If a
mixture containing 105 g of methanol and 75.0 g of carbon monoxide is allowed to react, (a) calculate the
theoretical yield of acetic acid and (b) the actual yield if the percent yield for the reaction is 85.0%

7. Titanium, an important metal used in the aircraft industry, can be prepared by reacting titanium tetrachloride with
magnesium metal. When 180 kg of TiCl4 is mixed with 55.0 kg of molten magnesium, 40.4 kg of titanium is
produced. Calculate (a) the theoretical yield for the reaction and (b) the percent yield of titanium.

Answers

1. 16.1 g
2. 40.0%
3. 8.56 x 104 g, 64.8%
4. 71.5%
5. 34.7 g
6. 161 g, 137 g
7. 45.4 kg, 88.9%

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