GRE Subject Test: Chemistry : Limiting Reagent
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Example Questions
Example Question #11 : Reaction Calculations And Limiting Reagent
Given the unbalanced equation below, how many grams of carbon dioxide will be produced from one mole of glucose and three moles of oxygen?
The first step to solve will be to balance the chemical reaction:
We see that we see that for every one mole of glucose used, six moles of carbon dioxide will be made. Similarly, for every six moles of oxygen used, six moles of carbon dioxide will be formed. For the reaction to carry out to completion, however, there must exist six moles of oxygen for every one mole of glucose. In the problem's circumstances, one of these compounds becomes the limiting reactant, in this case it is oxygen.
We only have three moles of oxygen, but we would need six to react all the given glucose, making oxygen the limiting reagent. We need to find the carbon dioxide produced from the limited amount of oxygen present. Use the molar ratio between oxygen and carbon dioxide and the molar mass of carbon dioxide to solve.
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