Question

Have to find theoretical yield of recrystallization of acetanilide from water.
1 gram of crude product used (85% acetanilide, 14% Sodium chloride and 1% charcoal)
I got 0.50 grams of purified product.
With percent recovery of : (0.50g/1.00g)* 100% = 50%.
How do I find the theoretical yield?
Please help!!! Thanks is advance

Answer 1

wouldn't it be 1gram*.85 ?

Answer 2

So you had in that 1g of stuff you started with 1 x 0.85 = 0.85g acetanilide; 1 x 0.14 = 0.14g NaCl; 1 x 0.01 = 0.01 g charcoal.
Wouldn't the theoretical yield = 0.85 g acetanilide. That's what you would get if you had 100% yield? right?
I might argue that percent recovery is not 50%. If you recovered 0.50g of acetanilide and you couldn't have obtained more than 0.85 g, that doesn't look like 50% recovery to me.

Answer 3

Thanks a lot, I obtained 0.85 g as well.
Concerning the 0.50g, few crystals were lost during handling.

Answer 4

I re-iterate that the percent recovery is not 50%.