Consider the combustion reaction for acetylene. 2 cap c sub 2 cap h sub 2 l plus 5 cap o sub 2 g rightarrow 4 CO sub 2 g plus 2 cap h sub 2 cap o g If the acetylene tank contains 37 point 0 mol of cap c sub 2 cap h sub 2 and the oxygen tank contains 81 point 0 mol of cap o sub 2 , what is the limiting reactant for this reaction?
The balanced reaction uses 5 mol of O₂ for every 2 mol of C₂H₂. To react with 37.0 mol of C₂H₂, you would need 37.0 × 5 ÷ 2 = 92.5 mol of O₂, but only 81.0 mol is available. Therefore, oxygen (O₂) is the limiting reactant.
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