Question

If we have 1.23 mol of NaOH in solution and 0.85 mol of Cl2 gas is available to react, which one is the limiting reactant? Give your reason.​

Answer 1

Answer:

NaOH is the limiting reactant.

Explanation:

Hello there!

In this case, since the reaction taking place between sodium hydroxide and chlorine has is:

$NaOH+Cl_2\rightarrow NaCl+NaClO+H_2O$

Which must be balanced according to the law of conservation of mass:

$2NaOH+Cl_2\rightarrow NaCl+NaClO+H_2O$

Whereas there is a 2:1 mole ratio of NaOH to Cl2, which means that the moles of the former that are consumed by 0.85 moles of the latter are:

$n_{NaOH}=0.85molCl_2*\frac{2molNaOH}{1molCl_2}\\\\n_{ NaOH}=1.7molNaOH$

Therefore, since we just have 1.23 moles out of 1.70 moles of NaOH, we infer this is the limiting reactant.

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