Senior High School

Physical Science
Quarter 3 - Module 6
Limiting Reactants and the Amount of
Products Formed

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 What I Need To Know

This module is designed to deepen your knowledge about Limiting Reactants and the
Amount of Product Formed. It has only one lesson. After going through this module, you are
expected to:
 determine the limiting reactant in a reaction and calculate the amount of product formed
(S11/12PS-III-h-27).

Physical Science Limiting Reactants and the Amount

Module 6 Lesson 1 of Products Formed

What’s In
Chemical reaction deals with the process that involves rearrangement of the molecular or
ionic structure of a substance, as opposed to a change in physical form or a nuclear reaction. A
chemical equation shows the starting compound(s)—the reactants—on the left and the final
compound(s)—the products—on the right, separated by an arrow. In a balanced chemical
equation, the numbers of atoms of each element and the total charge are the same on both sides
of the equation.

For example: the figure below shows the combustion of hydrocarbons like CH4 (methane) will
produce carbon dioxide and water.

What’s New

Stoichiometry is a section of chemistry that involves using relationships between reactants

and/or products in a chemical reaction to determine desired quantitative data.

Activity 1: Sweet Balance

In this activity, you will be introduced to simple stoichiometry. Stoichiometry is the chemical
term to describe calculations that allow us to find the amounts of chemicals involved in each
reaction.

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In stoichiometry, you must always start with a balanced equation. We will use the following
balanced material (equation):
2 EG + 1 EP →1 ToTa
Where:
EP = eggplant EG= egg ToTa= Tortang Talong

1. Notice that to make this recipe you have three pieces (reactant) to the left of the arrow and
one piece (product) to the right. This is supposed to represent a balanced equation, so how
can 3 = 1?

It’s because the pieces combine to form one whole. This would represent a
synthesis reaction.

2. If each student is to make one Tortang Talong, and I have 20 students, how much of each
ingredient will I need? Explain your logic – using a chemical equation.

2 EG + 1 EP → 1 ToTa (Use the ratio of the coefficients)

40 20 20

Let's look at a simplified view of the Tortang Talong example. I will start out with 6 eggs
and 4 eggplants.

How many eggplants would be needed if

all six of the eggs were used?
Which of the two ingredients do you
think will be used up first?
Which ingredient will have excess?

The correct answer is THREE. WHY?

The six eggs would require three eggplant to make three Tortang Talong.

Which of the two ingredients run out first? Answer: Egg

Since I have four eggplant (a greater supply than what is needed), the egg will limit the number of
Tortang Talong I can make.

Alternatively, you could look at the number of eggs that would be needed.

Suppose I wanted to make Tortang

Talong using the available ingredients earlier, how many
eggs would I need if I have four Eggplanst?

Great! The four eggplant would require eight eggs to make four Tortang Talong.

Since there are only six eggs (a supply less than what is needed), the eggs will limit the number
of tortang talong I can make.

You can see that the conclusion reached was the same regardless of the ingredient (or

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reactant) chosen.

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Let’s Try This!

We have five hot dogs and four hot dog buns. How many complete hot dogs can we make?

What Is It
Chemical equations give the ideal stoichiometric relationship among reactants and
products. However, sometimes the amount of reactants used are not mixed in exact or
proper ratio. Thus, there are instances that some reactant will be excess and the others
will be completely used up. In a chemical reaction, reactants that are not used up when the
reaction is finished are called excess reagents. The reagent that is completely used up or
reacted is called the limiting reagent because its quantity limits the amount of products
formed.

Figure 1 shows the parts of chemical reaction. We have two elements in the reactant side that
will undergo chemical reaction to produce a product: A + B → AB. An example of a synthesis
reaction is the combination of two molecules of H and two molecules of Oxygen gas to produce
one molecule of water.

PROBLEM SOLVING TIP:

The first and most important step for any stoichiometric calculation—such as finding
the limiting reagent or theoretical yield—is to start with a balanced reaction. Since our
calculations use ratios based on the stoichiometric coefficients, our answers will be
incorrect if the stoichiometric coefficients are not right.

Example 1: Determining the limiting reactant/reagent

For the following reaction, what is the limiting reagent if we start with 2.80g of Al (Aluminum)
and 4.25g of Cl (Chlorine)?
2𝐴𝑙 + 3𝐶𝑙2(𝑔) → 2𝐴𝑙𝐶𝑙3(𝑠)

First: Let’s check if our reaction is balanced: we have two Al atoms and six Cl atoms on both
sides of the arrow, so we are good to go! In this problem, we know the mass of both
reactants, and we would like to know which one will get used up first. In the first step, we will

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convert everything to moles, and then we will use the stoichiometric ratio from the balanced
reaction to find the limiting reagent.
Step 1: Convert amounts (grams) to moles.
We can convert the masses of Al and Cl2 to moles using molecular weights.
 Convert g Al to mol Al

 Convert g Cl2 to mol Cl2

Step 2: Find the limiting reagent using the stoichiometric ratio.

Now that our known quantities are in moles, there are multiple ways to find the
limiting reagent. We will show three methods here. They all give the same answer, so you
can choose your favorite. All three methods use the stoichiometric ratio in slightly different
ways.

METHOD 1: The first method is to calculate the actual molar ratio of the reactants, and then
compare the actual ratio to the stoichiometric ratio from the balanced reaction.

The actual ratio tells us that we have 1.74 mol of Al for every 1 mol of Cl2. In
comparison, the stoichiometric ratio from our balanced reaction is below:

This means we need at least 0.67 moles of Al for every mole of Cl 2. Since our actual
ratio is greater than our stoichiometric ratio, we have more Al than we need to react with
each mole of Cl2. Therefore, Cl2 is our limiting reagent and Al is in excess.

METHOD 2: A more guess-and-check way you can figure out the limiting reactant is by
picking one of the reactants—it doesn’t matter which one—and pretending that it is the
limiting reagent. We can then calculate the moles of the other reagent needed based on the
moles of our assumed limiting reagent. For example, if we assume that Al is the limiting
reagent, we would calculate the required amount of Cl2 as follows:

Based on this calculation, we would need 1.56x10-1 mol of Cl 2 if Al is actually the

limiting reagent. Since we have 5.99 x10-2 mol Cl2 which is less than 1.56x10-1 mol of Cl2 our
calculation tells us that we would run out of Cl2 before we fully reacted all of the Al.
Therefore, 1.56x10-1 mol of Cl2 is our limiting reagent.

METHOD 3: The third method uses the concept of a mole of reaction, which is abbreviated
as mol-rxn. One mole of reaction is defined as occurring when the number of moles given by
the coefficients in your balanced equation react. That definition can sound rather confusing,

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but the idea is hopefully more clear in the context of our example. In the current reaction, we
would say that one mole of reaction is when two moles of Al reacts with three moles of Cl 2 to
produce two moles of AlCl3 which we can also write as:
1 mol-rxn = 2 mol Al = 3 mol Cl2 = 2 mol AlCl3
We can use the above relationship to set up ratios to convert the moles of each
reactant to moles of reaction:

The more moles of reaction you have, the more times the reaction can occur.
Therefore, the reactant with fewer moles of reaction is the limiting reagent since the reaction
can be carried out fewer times with that reactant. We see that this method also Cl2 is our
limiting reagent because it makes 2.00×10−2mol-rxn, which is less than 5.20×10−2mol-rxn,
from Al.

Example 2: Calculating theoretical yield

Now that we know the limiting reagent, we can use that information to answer the following
question:
What is the theoretical yield of AlCl3 that the reaction can produce when we
start with 4.25 g of Cl2, our limiting reagent?

We can use the moles of limiting reagent plus the stoichiometric ratios from our balanced
reaction to calculate the theoretical yield. The coefficients from the balanced reaction tell us
that for every three mol of Cl 2 we should make two mol of AlCl 3. Therefore, the theoretical
yield, in moles, is:

The theoretical yield is usually expected to have units of mass, so we can convert moles of
AlCl3 to grams using the molecular weight:

Percent Yield
The theoretical yield is the maximum amount of product you would expect from a
reaction based on the amount of limiting reagent. In practice, however, chemists don’t
always obtain the maximum yield for many reasons. When running a reaction in the lab, loss
of product often occurs during purification or isolation steps. You might even decide it is
worth losing 10% of your product during an extra purification step because it is more
important to have extremely pure product—as opposed to having a larger amount of less
pure product.
Since chemists know that the actual yield might be less than the theoretical yield, we
report the actual yield using percent yield, which tells us what percentage of the theoretical
yield we obtained. This ratio can be very valuable to other people who might try your
reaction. The percent yield is determined using the following equation:

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 Since percent yield is a percentage, you would normally expect to have a percent
yield between zero and 100. If your percent yield is greater than 100, that probably means
you calculated or measured something incorrectly.

Example 3. Calculating theoretical and percent yield

The decomposition of magnesium carbonate (MgCO 3) forms 15 grams of magnesium

oxide (MgO) in an experiment. The theoretical yield is known to be 19 grams. What is the
percent yield of magnesium oxide (MgO)? What is the percent yield of the reaction?

MgCO3 → MgO + CO2

MgCO3 MgO CO2
Mg =1x24.31 g/mol Mg =1x24.31 g/mol C = 1x12.01 g/mol O=2x16.00
C = 1x12.01 g/mol O=3x16.00 O=1x16.00 g/mol g/mol
g/mol
MgCO3=84.32 g/mol MgO = 40.31 g/mol CO2=44.01 g/mol

First, we check to see if the reaction is balanced. It looks like we have equal numbers of all
atoms on both sides, so now we can move on to calculating the theoretical yield.

The calculation is simple if you know the actual and theoretical yields. All you need is
substitute the values into the formula:

percent yield = 15 grams

19 grams

percent yield = 79%

Usually, you have to calculate the theoretical yield based on the balanced equation.
In this equation, the reactant an the product have a 1:1 mole ratio, so if you know the
amount of reactant, you know the theoretical yield is the same value in moles (not grams!).
You take the number of grams of reactant you have, convert it to moles, and then use this
number of moles to find out how many grams of product to expect.

What’s More
Activity 2: Limiting Reactants Calculation
Directions: Solve the prblems and answer the following questions below. Show your
solutions.
1. Consider the following reaction:
2𝐴𝑙 + 6𝐻 → 2 𝐴𝑙𝐵𝑟3 + 3𝐻2
a) When 3.22 moles of Al react with 4.96 moles of HBr, how many moles of H 2
are formed?
b) What is the limiting reactant?
2. Consider the reaction below:

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 3𝑆𝑖 + 2𝑁2 → 𝑆𝑖3𝑁4
a) When 21.44 moles of Si react with 17.62 moles of N2, how many moles of
𝑆𝑖3𝑁4 are formed?
b) What is the limiting reactant?

What I Have Learned

Directions: Read and complete the statements below by filling in the blanks.
1. The ___________________ is the reactant that gets used up first during the reaction
and also determines how much product can be made.
2. ___________________ is a section of chemistry that involves using relationships
between reactants and/or products in a chemical reaction to determine desired
quantitative data.
3. ___________________ is a reactant that is not used up when the reaction stops.
4. ___________________ is a reagent that is completely used up or reacted.

What I Can Do
Activity 3: Limiting Reactants Activity
Direction: Do the activity below using your knowledge about limiting reactant.

One (Gu) Guava reacts with four (Je) Jelly to form a (GuJe) Guava Jelly
according to the following BALANCED equation: 1 Gu + 4 Je→ 1 GuJe
Questions:
a. How many Guava Jelly (GuJe) can be formed using 5 Guava and 23 Jelly?
b. What is the limiting reactant?
c. What is the excess reactant?
d. How much is left over?
e. Use the balanced equation to answer the following question. One Guava has a mass
of 2.0 grams and one Jelly has a mass of 1.5 g. How many Guava Jelly can be made
with 12.5 grams of Guava and 15.0 grams of Jelly?

Two PANSIT reacts with six SILING LABUYO to form a HOT Pansit
according to the following BALANCED equation: 2P + 6 SB • 1 HP

Questions:
a. How many Hot Pansit can be formed using 10 Pansit and 24 Siling Labuyo?
b. What is the limiting reactant?
c. What is the excess reactant?
d. How much is left over?
e. Use the balanced equation to answer the following question. One Pansit has a mass
of 5.0 grams and one Siling Labuyo has a mass of 1.0 gram. How many Hot Pansit
can be made from 40.0 grams of Pansit and 26.0 grams of Siling Labuyo?

Assessment

Directions: Read and answer the following items. Write the letter of the correct answer.

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1. It is the reactant that produces a lesser amount of product.
a. Excess Reactant c. Limiting Reactant
b. Percent Yield d. Co-Factor
2. It determines the relationship of reactant and product in chemical equation through
calculations.
a. Molality c. Balancing Equation
b. Stoichiometry d. Percent Yield
3. It is the maximum amount of product you would expect from a reaction based on the
amount of limiting reagent.
a. Theoretical yield c. Excess Reactant
b. Limiting Reactant d. Product Difference
4. They are the reactants that are not used up when the reaction stopped.
a. Excess Reagents c. Limiting Reagents
b. Solute d. Solution
5. It deals with the process that involves rearrangement of the molecular or ionic structure
of a substance to form a new substance or product.
a. Chemical Equilibrium c. Chemical Symbols
b. Chemical Reaction d. Stoichiometry
6. What is the expected value for percent yield?
a. -1 b. 0 - 100 c. above 100 d. Unknown
7. Which of the following equation below is correctly balanced?
a. Al + 3O2 → 2Al2O3 c. 4Al + 3O2 → Al2O3
b. 4Al + O2 → 2Al2O3 d. 4Al + 3O2 → 2Al2O3
8. In the equation Mg + HCl → MgCl2 + H2, how many molecules of hydrogen do we
need to make hydrogen balanced?
a. 2 b. 3 c. 6 d. 7
9. Use the BALANCED equation: 2C2H6 + 7O2 → 4CO2 + 6H2O. If 15 g of C2H6 react
with 45 g of O2, how many grams of water will be produced?
a. 22 g H2O b. 23 g H2O c. 27 g H2O d. 28 g H2O
10. What is the limiting reactant in the equation in item number 9?
a. O2 b. C2H6 c. H2O d. CO2

Answer Key
What’s More What I Can Do Assessment
1. 1.) a. 5 1. c
a.) Al: 4.83 mol H2 b. guava 2. b
HBr: 2.48 mol H2 c. jelly 3. a
b.) HBr d. 3 4. a
2. e. 2 guava jelly 5. b
a.) Si: 7.15 mol 𝑆𝑖3𝑁4 6. b
N2: 8.81 mol 𝑆𝑖3𝑁4 2.) a. 4 7. d
b.) Si b. siling labuyo 8. c
c. pansit 9. a
What I Have Learned d. 4 10. a
1. limiting reactant/reagent e. 4 hot pansit
2. Stoichiometry
3. Excess reagent
4. Limiting reagent

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References:
 Albo, Francis Darril A. 2020. Physical Science-Senior High School, Alternative Delivery Mode,
Quarter 1-Module 10: Limiting Reactants and the Amount of Products Formed. Region IV-A
CALABARZON: Department of Education.

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