WHAT WILL BE THE BALANCE CHEMICAL FORMULA FOR THIS QOUESTION
ammonia is produced by sythesizing nitrogen and hydrogen gas. if i have 2 mols of nitrogen gas and 5 mols of hydrogen gas, which reagent will run out first??
I balanced the equation and showed you the long way of doing it before. Here it is again.
http://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1289515206
The short way (but I think harder to understand) follows:
N2 + 3H2 ==> 2NH3
2.....5
2 moles N2*(3moles H2/1 mole N2) = 6 moles H2. Do you have 6 moles H2. No, therefore, N2 (not H2) must be the limiting reagent. You can check it this way.
5 moles H2 x (1 mole N2/3 moles H2) = 1.667 moles N2. Do you have that much N2? Yes, therefore, N2 (not H2) is the limiting reagent.
Why do I like the other way.
1. I think it's easier to understand.
2. You don't really do any fewer calculations. You MUST do one, then I always feel I must do the second one to check myself so I end up doing two no matter which way I go; it really isn't any shorter for me.
Now you have both ways. Take you pick.
Good luck.
5 moles N2
In order to determine which reagent will run out first, we need to compare the stoichiometric ratios of nitrogen gas (N2) and hydrogen gas (H2) in the balanced chemical equation for the synthesis of ammonia (NH3).
The balanced chemical equation for the production of ammonia is:
N2 + 3H2 → 2NH3
According to the balanced equation, 1 mole of nitrogen gas (N2) reacts with 3 moles of hydrogen gas (H2) to produce 2 moles of ammonia (NH3).
Therefore, we can set up a conversion factor to determine the amount of ammonia that can be produced from the given amounts of nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas:
2 moles of NH3 / 1 mole of N2 * 2 moles of N2 = 4 moles of NH3
So, with 2 moles of nitrogen gas, we can produce up to 4 moles of ammonia.
Now let's calculate the maximum amount of ammonia that can be produced from the 5 moles of hydrogen gas:
2 moles of NH3 / 3 moles of H2 * 5 moles of H2 = 10/3 moles of NH3
Therefore, with 5 moles of hydrogen gas, we can produce approximately 10/3 moles of ammonia.
Comparing the two results, we can see that we have an excess of hydrogen gas because we are limited by the amount of nitrogen gas. Since we can only produce 4 moles of ammonia from the available 2 moles of nitrogen gas, the nitrogen gas will run out first.
In conclusion, the nitrogen gas will be the reagent that runs out first in this reaction.