Question

Diethyl ether is produced from ethanol according to the following equation:

Answer 1

The balanced chemical equation is given as:

2CH3CH2OH(l) → CH3CH2OCH2CH3(l) + H2O(l)

We are given the yield of  CH3CH2OCH2CH3 and the amount of ethanol to be used for the reaction. These values will be the starting point for the calculations.

Theoretical amount of product produced:
329 g CH3CH2OH ( 1 mol / 46.07 g ) ( 1 mol CH3CH2OCH2CH3 / 2 mol CH3CH2OH ) (74.12 g / mol ) = 264.66 g CH3CH2OCH2CH3 

% yield = .775 = actual yield / 264.66


actual yield = 205.11 g CH3CH2OCH2CH3