Question

please hurry!! If 3.87g of powdered aluminum oxide is placed in a container containing 5.67g of water, what is the limiting reactant?

Answer 1

If aluminum oxide is placed in a container containing water, the reaction would not occur at all. So there would be no limiting reactant to begin with if there is no reaction.

Step-by-step explanation:

This is because aluminum oxide unlike the oxides of the alkaline earth metals is insoluble in water and hence cannot mix to form products with water because the oxide ions are held very strongly to the solid lattice structure of the aluminum.

Answer 2

The answer to your question is Al₂O₃

Step-by-step explanation:

Data

mass of Al₂O₃ = 3.87 g

mass of H₂O = 5.67 g

Balanced chemical reaction

Al₂O₃ + H₂O ⇒ 2Al(OH)₃

- Calculate the molar mass

Al₂O₃ = (27 x 2) + (16 x 3) = 102 g

H₂O = (1 x 2) + 16 = 18

- Calculate the theoretical and experimental proportion

Theoretical proportion = 102/ 18 = 4.67

Experimental proportion = 3.87/5.67 = 0.68

- Conclusion

As the experimental proportion diminishes, we conclude that the limiting reactant is Al₂O₃.