Question

If 650. grams of C6H12O6 (FW 180.16) reacts with 650. grams of O2 (FW 32.00) in cellular respiration: C6H12O6 6 O2 --> 6 CO2 6 H2O Which is the limiting reactant

Answer 1

O2 is limiting reactant

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the limiting reactant we need to convert the mass of each reactant to the moles using the formula weight. And, as 1 mole of C6H12O6 reacts with 6 moles of O2, we can know wich reactant will be over first (Limiting reactant) as follows:

Moles C6H12O6:

650g * (1mol/180.16g) = 3.608 moles C6H12O6

Moles O2:

650g * (1mol/32g) = 20.31 moles O2

Now, for a complete reaction of 3.608 moles of C6H12O6 are required:

3.608 moles C6H12O6 * (6mol O2 / 1mol C6H12O6) = 21.65 moles O2

As there are just 20.31 moles of O2,

O2 is limiting reactant