What are limiting reactants?

1 Answer
Sarthak
Aug 30, 2017

Limiting reactants or limiting reagents decide the amount of product formed and the amount of excess reagent used.

Explanation:

A limiting reactant is that reactant that is completely used up in a reaction. It is found out by dividing the stoichiometric coefficients of the given reactants with the number of moles used.For example,
In the reaction below, if we take 2 mol of N_2 and H_2,

N_(2(g)) + 3H_(2(g)) rightleftharpoons 2NH_(3(g))

For N_2,

ratio is 2/1

For H_2

ratio is 2/3

The ratio for H_2 < N_2.So, for this reaction, H_2 is the limiting reactant and N_2 is the excess reactant i.e present in excess quantity

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