Determine which reactant is the limiting reactant, if,
Mass of Sodium Bicarbonate= 2.00g
Mass of Citric Acid = 0.76g
Are my calculations right, or is it wrong?
(2.00g of NaHO3)(1mol/84.01g of NaHO3)(1mol of H3C6H5O7/ 3 mol of NaHO3)(192.14g of H3C6H5O7)= 1.52g of citric acid
Therefore, citric acid is limiting reactant since 0.76 g of citric acid is less than the equivalent amount which is 1.52g.
I agree citric acid is the LR but I worked it another way. You can compare mols and not go through the grams step.
Your calculations and reasoning appear to be correct. To determine the limiting reactant in a chemical reaction, you need to compare the mole ratios between the reactants. By converting the masses of the reactants to moles and using the stoichiometric coefficients in the balanced equation, you have correctly calculated the number of moles of citric acid that corresponds to 2.00g of sodium bicarbonate.
Using the equation: NaHCO3 + H3C6H5O7 -> NaC6H5O7 + CO2 + H2O
From the balanced equation, you know that the ratio of moles between NaHCO3 and H3C6H5O7 is 3:1.
Therefore, 2.00g of NaHCO3 corresponds to:
2.00g NaHCO3 * (1 mol NaHCO3 / 84.01g NaHCO3) * (1 mol H3C6H5O7 / 3 mol NaHCO3) * (192.14g H3C6H5O7 / 1 mol H3C6H5O7) = 1.52g H3C6H5O7
Since you have only 0.76g of citric acid, which is less than the equivalent amount calculated from sodium bicarbonate (1.52g), citric acid is indeed the limiting reactant in this reaction.