Question

For the following reaction, 77.9 grams of barium chloride are allowed to react with with 68.8 grams of potassium sulfate.

What is the maximum amount of barium sulfate that can be formed in grams?

What is the FORMULA for the limiting reagent?

What amount of the excess reagent remains after the reaction is complete in grams?

Answer 1

For limiting reagent problems I work two of the "simple" stoichiometry problems (simple defined as not limiting reagent). Use one reactant and calculate the moles of product, then the other reactant and calculate the mole of product. You will obtain two answers, of course, but the correct answer is ALWAYS the smaller value. Here is a worked example of a simple stoichiometry problem.
http://www.jiskha.com/science/chemistry/stoichiometry.html
Use the non-limiting reagent to determine how much of the limiting reagent is used and subtract from the original amount to determine the amount of LR not reacted.