Question

When 7.00 g of hydrogen react with 70.0 g of nitrogen, hydrogen is considered the limiting reactant because:

Answer 1

7.5 mol of hydrogen would be needed to consume the available nitrogen.

Explanation:

When hydrogen reacts with nitrogen, ammonia is formed as shown below;

3H₂ (g) + N₂ (g) → 2NH₃ (g)

As seen from the equation, every 3 moles of H₂ react with a mole of N₂ to form 2 moles of NH₃.

The limiting factor in a chemical reaction is the reactant that gets depleted first.

Because the molar mass of nitrogen gas is approximately 28g/mol, 70g of nitrogen gas would be 2.5 moles.

The reaction ratio of nitrogen to hydrogen in the reaction is 1 : 3. The reaction would require 2.5 * 3 (7.5) moles of hydrogen for a complete reaction.

However since there are only 7g on hydrogen, (Remember 1 mole of H₂ is approximately 2g), the available moles of H₂ is 7 / 2 = 3.5

3.5 moles fall short of the 7.5 moles of H₂ required for a complete reaction. H₂ gets depleted first before N₂.  The reaction would require 4 more moles of H₂.