How many moles of water can be made from 4 moles of oxygen gas and 16 moles of hydrogen gas? What is the Limiting Reagent?
8 h2o
To determine how many moles of water can be made and identify the limiting reagent, we need to use the balanced chemical equation for the reaction between oxygen and hydrogen to form water.
The balanced chemical equation is:
2 H₂ + O₂ → 2 H₂O
The stoichiometric ratio in this equation tells us that the ratio of moles of hydrogen gas (H₂) to moles of water (H₂O) is 2:2, or simply 1:1. This means that for every one mole of hydrogen gas, we can form one mole of water.
Let's determine the number of moles of water that can be produced:
Given:
Moles of O₂ = 4 moles
Moles of H₂ = 16 moles
From the balanced equation, we can see that for every 2 moles of H₂, 2 moles of H₂O are formed. Therefore, for 16 moles of H₂, we can form (16/2) × 2 = 16 moles of H₂O.
Comparing the moles of H₂O that can be formed (16 moles) to the initial moles of O₂ (4 moles), we can see that the O₂ is in excess. The limiting reagent is the reactant that is completely consumed, which in this case is the H₂.
Therefore, 16 moles of water can be made from the given reactants, and the limiting reagent is hydrogen gas (H₂).
To determine the number of moles of water that can be made from the given reactants and to find the limiting reagent, we need to compare the amount of each reactant based on their stoichiometry.
The balanced chemical equation for the reaction of oxygen gas (O2) with hydrogen gas (H2) to form water (H2O) is:
2H2 + O2 -> 2H2O
From the equation, we can see that 2 moles of H2 react with 1 mole of O2 to produce 2 moles of H2O.
Given:
- Oxygen gas (O2) = 4 moles
- Hydrogen gas (H2) = 16 moles
To determine the limiting reagent, we can calculate the amount of water we would get if we fully reacted each reactant.
For Oxygen gas (O2):
- Moles of H2O = (4 moles of O2) * (2 moles of H2O / 1 mole of O2) = 8 moles of H2O
For Hydrogen gas (H2):
- Moles of H2O = (16 moles of H2) * (2 moles of H2O / 2 moles of H2) = 16 moles of H2O
Comparing the two calculations, we see that we can produce a maximum of 8 moles of water from the reaction of 4 moles of O2. However, we can produce a maximum of 16 moles of water from the reaction of 16 moles of H2.
Since we cannot produce more than 8 moles of H2O from the available 4 moles of O2, the oxygen gas (O2) is the limiting reagent.
Therefore, the limiting reagent is oxygen gas (O2) and the maximum number of moles of water that can be formed is 8 moles.
1. Write the equation and balance it.
2H2 + O2 ==> 2H2O
2a. Using the coefficients in the balanced equation, convert moles oxygen to moles H2O.
2b. Same procedure convert moles hydrogen to moles H2O.
2c. It is likely that these answers will be different; it should be obvious that one of them MUST be wrong. The correct value is ALWAYS the smaller one and the reactant producing the smaller value is the limiting reagent.