What is the percentage yield of the reaction of 4.9 g isoamyl alcohol with 4.9 g of acetic acid if 3.5 g of isoamyl acetate product is obtained after distillation?

Question

Enter your answer, without a % symbol, to 2 sig. figs.

Answer 1

This is a limiting reagent (LR) problem. You know that when amounts have been given for BOTH reactants.

I'll use abbreviations
alco + acetic ==> acetate + H2O
mols alco = grams/molar mass
mols acetic = grams/molar mass

Using the coefficients in the balanced equation, convert mols alco to mols acetate.
Do the same for mols acetic to mols acetate.
It is likely that these two values will not agree; the correct answer in LR problems is ALWAYS the smaller value.

Convert the smaller value to grams. grams = mols acetate x molar mass of the isoamyl acetate. This is the theoretical yield (TY).
The actual yield (AY) is given in the problem as 3.5g.
%yield = (AY/TY)*100 = ?

Answer 2

71.42%