Question

If 14.6 mol of iron(III) oxide and 17.5 mol of carbon react, what is the maximum number of moles of iton that can be recovered from the reaction? 2 Fe2O3(s) + 3 C(s) → 4 Fe (s) + 3 CO2(g)

Answer 1

You can recover a maximum of 29.2 mol of iron.

Explanation:

We are given the amounts of two reactants, so this is a limiting reactant problem.

We know that we will need a balanced equation with moles of each reactant.

Step 1. Gather all the information in one place with moles below the formulas.

`color(white)(mmmmmll)"2Fe"_2"O"_3 + "3C"color(white)(m) → "4Fe" + "3CO"_2`
`"Amt/mol:"color(white)(ml)14.6color(white)(mml)17.5`
`"Divide by:"color(white)(mll)2color(white)(mmmm)3`
`"Moles rxn:"color(white)(mll)4.866color(white)(mm)5.833`

Step 2. Identify the limiting reactant

An easy way to identify the limiting reactant is to calculate the "moles of reaction" each will give:

You divide the moles of each reactant by its corresponding coefficient in the balanced equation.

I did that for you in the table above.

`"Fe"_2"O"_3` is the limiting reactant because it gives the fewer moles of reaction.

Step 3. Calculate the moles of `"Fe"` formed

`"Moles of Fe" = 14.6 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("mol Fe"_2"O"_3))) × ("4 mol Fe")/(2 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("mol Fe"_2"O"_3)))) = "29.2 mol Fe"`