Question

In an experiment, 32.0 g of iron (III) oxide was reacted with 16.2 g of aluminum. Which of the two reactants is the limiting reactant?

a) Iron (III) oxide
b) Aluminum
c) Both are limiting
d) Neither is limiting

Answer 1

The limiting reactant in this experiment is the iron (III) oxide.

Step-by-step explanation:

In order to determine the limiting reactant, we need to compare the number of moles of each reactant. To do this, we first convert the given masses of iron (III) oxide and aluminum to moles using their molar masses.

Iron (III) oxide = 32.0 g / 159.69 g/mol = 0.2007 mol

Aluminum = 16.2 g / 26.98 g/mol = 0.6003 mol

Since the number of moles of iron (III) oxide is less than the number of moles of aluminum, the iron (III) oxide is the limiting reactant.