Acetic acid (CH3COOH) reacts with isopentyl alcohol (C5H12O) to form isopentyl acetate (C7H14O2), a fragrant substance with the odor of bananas.

Question

CH3COOH + C5H12O -> C7H14O2 + H2O
If the yield for the reaction is 45%, how many grams of the product are formed when 3.58 g of acetic acid are reacted with 4.75 grams of isopentyl alcohol?

So millimoles of acetic acid= 59.6667
Millimoles of isopentyl alcohol= 53.9773

But I don't know what to do from here.

Answer 1

Very good so far.
a. Convert mmoles acetic acid to mmoles of the product.
b. Convert mmoles isopentyl alcohol to mmoles of the product.
c. It is more than likely that these two numbers will not agree which means one of them is wrong.
d. The correct answer in limiting reagent problems is ALWAYS the smaller value and the reagent producing that value is the limiting reagent.

Next step. So the smaller value is the mmoles of the product formed. That times 0.45 will give you the mmoles at 45% yield, then multiply by molar mass to obtain mg and convert to grams. Check my work.