10/7/16

Stoichiometry, Limiting
& Excess Reactants and
Percent Yield

Stoichiometry
Stoichiometry-the study of the mass relationships of
elements in compounds or between reactants and
products in a chemical reaction.
Mg (s) + HCl (aq) MgCl2 (aq) + H2(g)
Mole ratios: are used in stoichiometry problems to
convert from grams or moles of one substance to
grams or moles of another substance.

Type 1: Moles to Moles

Ex. Using the following reaction, how many moles
of lithium hydroxide are required to react with 20.
moles of CO2?
CO2 (g) +

LiOH (s)

Li2CO3 (s) +

H2O (l)

Type 2: Moles to Mass

Ex. Using the following reaction, how many grams
of SiC (40.1 g/mol) are produced if 2.00 mol of
carbon are used?
SiO2 (s) +

C(s)

SiC (s) +

CO (g)

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Type 3: Mass to Moles

Type 4: Mass to Mass

Ammonia (NH3) reacts with oxygen to form

nitrogen monoxide gas and water vapor. How many
moles of water are formed using 824 g of NH3
(17.04 g/mol)?

Ex. Tin reacts with gaseous hydrogen fluoride to

produce solid tin (II) fluoride and hydrogen gas. How
many grams of tin (II) fluoride (156.71 g/mol) are
produced from the reaction if 30.00 grams of hydrogen
fluoride (20.01 g/mol) is used?

Limiting Reactant

Example 1

Limiting Reactant: The reactant that limits the

amount of products. This amount of reactant will
reach 0 before the other reactants.
How do I know if it is a limiting reactant problem?

Ex: When oxygen gas is reacted with hydrogen gas,

water is a product. If 25.0 g of oxygen and 15.0
grams of hydrogen are used, which is the limiting
reactant? How many grams of product are formed?

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Example 2
Ex: 25.0 g of nitrogen gas and 5.00 grams of
hydrogen gas are mixed to form ammonia (NH3).
How many grams of ammonia will be produced?

Stoichiometry and Excess

Reactants
Excess reactant: After a reaction has gone to
completion and all of the limiting reactant has been
used up, the reactant that is leftover is the excess
reactant.

You must first use the same steps of finding limiting

reactant. To find excess reactant it may result in 1
stoichiometric equation or 2using a BCA makes
the task easier.

Example 3

Example 4

When 12.0 grams of ammonia are passed over 20.0

g of solid copper (II) oxide (79.55 g/mol) the
products are solid copper, nitrogen gas, and water
vapor. How many grams of excess reactant are
leftover when the reaction has reached completion?

125 g of zinc is reacted with 100. g of hydrochloric

acid (36.46 g/mol). How much excess reactant is left
when the reaction has reached completion? How
many grams of hydrogen gas are produced?

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Percent Yield

Percent Yield

When doing a stoichiometry calculation, the amount of

product that you calculate is called the theoretical yield.
This is the maximum amount of product that can
potentially form.

When doing experiments we strive for a low percent

error but a high percent yield. It is not possible to
have a percent yield over 100%

In reality, an experiment will not yield 100% of what can

form. The amount that is actually produced in lab is
called the actual yield.

A student calculates that 10.6 g of nitrogen will be

produced but the experiment yields 6.63 g. What is
the % yield?

To compare these we use percent yield.

A student calculates they should produce 2.25 grams

of product in their lab. When they finish the lab they
have a % yield of 33.2%. What is their actual yield?

% Yield = actual yield (experimental) x100%

theoretic yield (calculated)

Percent Yield Combined with

Stoichiometry
25.0 g of sodium reacts with excess chlorine gas to
form sodium chloride (58.44 g/mol). If a student in
lab produces 50.8 g of sodium chloride, what is their
% yield?