How to Calculate the Mass of Acrylonitrile Produced in a Chemical Reaction

What mass of acrylonitrile can be produced from the given reactants?

a. 31.2g
b. 15.1g
c. 5.50g
d. 12.4g
e. 15.6g

Final answer:

The mass of acrylonitrile that can be produced is approximately 15.6g, with O₂ being the limiting reagent in the considered chemical reaction.

Explanation:

To solve this problem, we need to determine the limiting reagent in the given chemical reaction. The limiting reagent is the reactant that gets completely consumed first, effectively determining the maximum amount of product that can be formed.

• First, calculate the moles of each reactant. Use the molar mass of each reactant to convert grams to moles. For C₃H₆, the molar mass is about 42.08 g/mol, for NH₃ it's about 17.03 g/mol, and for O₂ it's about 32.00 g/mol. This calculation gives us approximately 0.285 mol C₃H₆, 0.587 mol NH₃, and 0.156 mol O₂.
• Second, divide the number of moles of each reactant by the stoichiometric coefficient from the balanced chemical equation. We find for C₃H₆ it's about 0.1425, for NH₃ it's about 0.2935, and for O₂ it's about 0.0520.
• Since O₂ gives the smallest value, it's the limiting reagent. Use the number of moles of the limiting reagent to find the total amount of product that can be formed. According to the balanced chemical equation, for every 3 moles of O₂ that react, 2 moles of acrylonitrile (C₃H₃N, whose molar mass is about 53.06 g/mol) can be produced, so our final mass will be approximately 15.6g of acrylonitrile.