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How many moles of the excess reactant remain after the completion of the reaction?

Sodium hydroxide reacts with carbon dioxide as follows: 2NaOH(s) + CO2(g) yields Na2CO3(s) + H2O(l)

User Artoonie
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Final answer:

To find moles of excess reactant remaining after a reaction, use the stoichiometric coefficients from the balanced equation. The excess depends on the actual amounts of reactants used initially. Without specifics, we cannot provide the moles of excess reactant.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine how many moles of the excess reactant remain after the completion of the reaction between sodium hydroxide and carbon dioxide, you must first write a balanced molecular equation for the reaction:

2NaOH(s) + CO2(g) → Na2CO3(s) + H2O(l)

This equation indicates that two moles of sodium hydroxide react with one mole of carbon dioxide to produce one mole of sodium carbonate and one mole of water. If a stoichiometric excess of one reactant is present, we can use the stoichiometric coefficients to find the amount of excess reactant remaining. For example, if we started with 3 moles of sodium hydroxide, we would fully react 2 moles with 1 mole of carbon dioxide based on the molar ratio from the equation. This would leave us with 1 mole of sodium hydroxide remaining as the excess reactant after the reaction is complete. It's important to note that without the actual amounts of reactants used, we cannot provide a specific value for the moles remaining. The complete ionic equation and the net ionic equation would show the dissociated ions for each aqueous compound. However, these equations are not directly relevant to the question of how much excess reactant remains.

User Enosh Bansode
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