if 3.5 mol TiCl4 reacts with 4.5 mol O2, which is the limiting reactant?
Well, let's do a little math here. First, let's compare the moles of TiCl4 and O2 to see which one is limiting.
For every 3 moles of O2, we need 1 mole of TiCl4 to react. So if we have 4.5 moles of O2, we would only need 4.5/3 = 1.5 moles of TiCl4.
Since we have 3.5 moles of TiCl4, it looks like the limiting reactant is TiCl4. It brought too many moles to the party! It's a classic case of overreacting (pun intended).
To determine the limiting reactant, we need to compare the moles of each reactant to the stoichiometric ratio in the balanced equation.
The balanced equation for the reaction is:
TiCl4 + 2O2 -> TiO2 + 2Cl2
From the equation, we can see that 1 mole of TiCl4 reacts with 2 moles of O2.
Given:
- Moles of TiCl4 = 3.5 mol
- Moles of O2 = 4.5 mol
We can calculate the moles of TiCl4 that react with the available O2:
Moles of TiCl4 needed = (moles of O2) × (moles of TiCl4 per mole of O2)
= 4.5 mol × (1 mol TiCl4 / 2 mol O2)
= 2.25 mol TiCl4
Since we have 3.5 mol of TiCl4, which is greater than 2.25 mol, TiCl4 is in excess. And O2, which is needed 2.25 mol, is the limiting reactant.
To determine the limiting reactant, we need to compare the ratio of the moles of each reactant to the stoichiometric ratio. The stoichiometric ratio is the ratio of the coefficients of the reactants in the balanced chemical equation.
The balanced chemical equation for the reaction between TiCl4 and O2 is:
TiCl4 + 2O2 → TiO2 + 2Cl2
According to the balanced equation, the ratio of TiCl4 to O2 is 1:2. This means that for every 1 mole of TiCl4, we need 2 moles of O2.
Given that we have 3.5 mol of TiCl4 and 4.5 mol of O2, we can calculate the moles of O2 required for the reaction with TiCl4 as follows:
(3.5 mol TiCl4) × (2 mol O2 / 1 mol TiCl4) = 7 mol O2
Since we have 4.5 mol of O2, which is less than the calculated value of 7 mol, it means that O2 is the limiting reactant in this reaction.
TiCl4:O2
1:1
3.5mol:4.5mol
since TiCl4 is present in fewer amounts (moles), therefore TiCl4 is the limiting reagent.