Using stoichiometry, we need to determine which reactant is the
limiting reactant, so we must calculate how many grams of copper
are produced with a specific amount of each
reactant. So, if I give you 1.28 g of
CuSO4 to start with, how many grams of Cu will be
produced? This is a three-step stoichiometry
reaction, following these steps:
Mass
CuSO4 → moles CuSO4 → moles
Cu → mass Cu
So, this time I will give you a specific amount of Al and you
need to determine how much Cu is produced if Al was
the limiting reactant. If I give
you 0.12 g of
Al to react with CuSO4, how many
grams of Cu will be produced? This is a three-step
stoichiometry reaction, following these steps:
Mass Al → moles Al → moles Cu → mass
Cu
Now that we determined the amount of Cu produced with a given
amount of each reactant (questions 4 and 5), what
reactant was the limiting reagent in the example?