CHEMICAL CHANGE II

LIMITING REACTANT AND THEORETICAL YIELD

NOTES (Day 3)
Guide Questions:
a) What is the limiting reactant?
b) What is the excess reactant?
c) How much water do we make
LIMITING REACTANT AND
(theoretical yield)?
THEORETICAL YIELD

 Let us try another example:

Let us consider this reaction:

 Nitrogen and Hydrogen react to form
How many moles of water can
we make from 6 moles of hydrogen and 4
moles of oxygen?
 Steps in determining the limiting
reactant
ammonia (NH3). Consider the mixture
of N2 (red spheres) and H2 (blue
spheres) in the picture below. Draw a
picture of the product mixture,
assuming that the reaction goes to
completion. Which is the limiting
reactant? What is the theoretical yield?

Step 1: Determine the balanced chemical

 The balanced equation is:
equation for the chemical reaction.
In this example, the balanced chemical
equation is already given.

Step 2: Convert amounts to moles. (most

likely, through the use of molar mass as a
conversion factor).  H2 is the limiting reactant.
The given example is in moles already.  2 moles of NH3 is the theoretical
yield
Step 3: Calculate the mole ratio from the
given information. Compare the calculated
ratio to the actual ratio.

Can you give some real life

application of limiting reactant and
theoretical yield aside from those examples
already given?

1

You try to practice by answering the
worksheet on limiting reactant and
theoretical yield.
Prepared by:
OLGA L. ASIA
SWEET ANGEL Q. MANANSALA
Tarlac National High School Annex
Appendix A
Questions from p.1
Limiting Reactant - The reactant in a
chemical reaction that limits the amount
of product that can be formed.
• The excess reactant is the reactant in a
chemical reaction with a greater amount
than necessary to react completely with
the limiting reactant.
• The maximum amount of product that
can be produced is called the theoretical
yield.