Limiting Reactants by Franz

A limiting reactant is an atom or chemical in an equation or reaction that prevents the reaction from happening more.

In the example above we’re are making grilled cheese sandwiches so in order to make one sandwich we have to have 2 pieces of bread and one cheese. Since the ratio of bread to cheese is 2:1 and we have 9 slices of bread and 5 slices of cheese the limiting reactant here would be the bread because now we have one slice of bread and cheese left over. Now lets try it with actual elements.

SO here we have H2O and for the reaction to occur we have once again a ratio of 2:1 but in the reaction there is a O2 molecule so we're going to have to have twice the amount of Hydrogen then oxygen. But in the picture we only have 10 H2 and 7 O2 and after the reaction we still have O2 left over and so the limiting reactant is H2. The term for the H2 left over is called a excess reactant.

Facts

-       Limiting reactants are used in your day to day life without you even really noticing

-       Involved in stoichiometry

Questions

-       If we have 8 cars and 40 tires and each car requires 4 tires what is the limiting reactant and how much will be left over? And how many cars will we have?