Final answer:
The limiting reactant is oxygen.
Step-by-step explanation:
The limiting reactant is the reactant that is completely consumed in a chemical reaction. To determine the limiting reactant, we need to compare the moles of the reactants to their respective stoichiometric ratios in the balanced chemical equation. Let's calculate the moles of sulfur dioxide and oxygen:
Number of moles of sulfur dioxide = mass of sulfur dioxide (in grams) / molar mass of sulfur dioxide
Number of moles of oxygen = mass of oxygen (in grams) / molar mass of oxygen
Once we have the moles of each reactant, we can compare them to the stoichiometric ratio in the balanced chemical equation to determine which reactant is in excess and which one is the limiting reactant.
Let's do the calculations:
Molar mass of sulfur dioxide (SO2) = 32.07 g/mol
Molar mass of oxygen (O2) = 31.9988 g/mol
Number of moles of sulfur dioxide = 48 g / 32.07 g/mol = 1.495 mol
Number of moles of oxygen = 16 g / 31.9988 g/mol = 0.500 mol
According to the balanced chemical equation for the reaction, the ratio of sulfur dioxide to oxygen is 2:1. This means that for every 2 moles of sulfur dioxide, we need 1 mole of oxygen. Since we have more moles of sulfur dioxide (1.495 mol) compared to moles of oxygen (0.500 mol), the oxygen is the limiting reactant.