Question: If we mix together 32.2 g of salicylic acids with 15.6 g of acetic anhydride in this reaction we obtain 27.8grams of asprin. What is the percent yield for this reaction? - enter only your numeric answer, do not include the % sign in your answer, do not use scientific notation and enter 3 significant digits

Question

Question: If we mix together 32.2 g of salicylic acids with 15.6 g of acetic anhydride in this reaction we obtain 27.8grams of asprin.  What is the percent yield for this reaction? - enter only your numeric answer, do not include the % sign in your answer, do not use scientific notation and enter 3 significant digits

The answer I got was 58.2%. Am I correct?

DrBob222 · Answer

I got a different number. Post your work and I'll look for the error.

IRA · Answer

@drbob222 The way I did it was 27.8/47.8 = 58.2 with 47.8g being the total weight of the first two chemicals

DrBob222 · Answer

That method doesn't work BECAUSE you neglected the other product and since you don't know the amount of acetic acid formed you can't use this method. This is a limiting reagent problem. If you will scroll up to the LR problem I worked above you can see how to do this one also.
salicylic acid + acetic anhydride = aspirin + acetic acid.
The equation is C7H6O3 + C4H6O3 --> C9H8O4 + CH3COOH. You should look this up on Google to make sure I copied it correctly.