what is Limiting Reactants?
For a chemical reaction, the limiting reactant is a substance or agent that is consumed completely when the reaction is completed. With the help of reagent, the quantity produced for a particular product can be limited and the reaction will not continue ahead. In the case of participation reaction, the incomplete precipitation will give you a perfect idea of the limiting reagent.
For the dissolution reaction, the perfect saturated or unsaturated solution will give you the limiting reactant. For the gaseous reactions, the limiting reagent can be calculated by deep analysis of a mixture of gas that is formed ahead. Here, we are giving the procedure to find the limiting reagent as below –
- Firstly, you need to balance the chemical equation if they are not balanced.
- Now calculate the total number of moles for each reactant in the reaction.
- Now calculate the number of products that will be produced after the complete reaction.
- Also, check which reactant can produce the minimum product quantity and this is the limiting reagent for the reaction.
Limiting Reactants Calculating
To find the limiting reagent in Chemistry, you should form a balanced equation first. Here, the total number of atoms available at reactant side should be equal to the total number of atoms available at the product side. Now check the molecular weight of the compound that is generally given in grams. If you are in a chemistry lab then calculating the mass of each reactant is quite easy or you can also use the periodic table for the same purpose.