Question

Silicon carbide (SiC) is made by reacting sand (Silicon dioxide, SiO2) with powdered carbon at high temperature. Carbon monoxide is also formed. What is the percent yield if 51.4kg of SiC is recovered from processing 100.0kg of sand? What mass (in kg) of carbon would be needed for this process?

I tried creating the equation and got this:
SiO2+3C->SiC+2CO

Answer 1

......SiO2 + 3C->SiC + 2CO

a. mols SiC = 100,000 g/molar mass SiO2 = ?
Look at the equation 1 mol SiO2 produces 1 mol SiC; therefore, ? mols SiO2 will produce that many mols SiC.
Convert mols SiC to grams. grams SiC = mols SiC x molar mass SiC = ?. This is the theoretical yield(TY). The actual yield (AY) is 51,400 g from the problem.
% yield = (AY/TY)*100

b.
Convert mols SiO2 you calculated from above to mols C using the coefficients in the balanced equation the same way you converted mols SiO2 to mols SiC above. Then convert mols C to grams C the same way you converted mols SiC to grams SiC above. Post your work if you get stuck.