Limiting Reactant
Limiting reactant is the reactant which runs out first. The limiting reactant determines how
much product you can make.
Generally, in these type of questions you are given information about the two reactants. This
information allows you to calculate how much moles you have from both reactants and
therefore determine which reactant is limiting.
Which part of the hot dog is limiting is this case?
In this case the bread is limiting because there only 4 while the sausages is non limiting since
there is 5. The person making these hot dogs can only produce 4 hot dogs. This number was
determined from the number of breads which was limiting. We can conclude that the limiting
reactant will determine how much product can be produced.
Limiting reactant questions are worked using the following steps.
• Step 1: work out the moles of both reactants
• Step2: identify the limiting reactant by finding the reactant which has the least
number of moles.
• Step 3: use the number of moles of the limiting reactant to work out the mass of the
product.
Worked example
1. Given that 200g of F2O3 and 300g of carbon react in the following equation.
Calculate the amount of iron which can be produced.
2 Fe2O3 + 3 C → 4 Fe + 3 CO2
200g 300g mass=?
2. Use the reaction, to answer the following questions.
2 PH3 + 4 O2 → P2O5 + 3 H2O
How many grams of P2O5 will be produced when 17.0 g of PH3 is mixed with 16.0 g of
O2 and reaction occurs?
a. Which of the reactants is limiting? Which is in excess?
3. Hydrofluoric acid (HF) can be prepared according to the following equation:
CaF2 + H2SO4 → 2 HF + CaSO4.
How many grams of HF can be prepared from 75.0 g of H2SO4 and 63.0 g of CaF2?
b. In the above problem, which reactant is limiting and which is in excess?
