Limiting Reagent & Percent Yield

Question

5. Determine the limiting reagent and calculate the percent yield of isopentyl acetate in the g reaction. The density of acetic acid is 1.049 gmL. You must show all work for credit. H2SO4 acetic acid C2H402 isopentyl alcohol CH120 isopentyl acetate C,H1402 water To 11.10g of isopentyl alochol in a dry 150-mL round bottom flask, was added 24.5mL of acetic acid and a catalytic amount of H2SO4 (5.0 mL). The reaction mixture was refluxed for 30 minutes. The reaction mixture was then allowed to cool and washed with 5% sodium bicarbonate and water. The crude product was dried over sodium sulfate. It smelled strongly of bananas. The crude product was distilled to yield 7.102g of isopentyl acetate

Answer 1

You need correct molecular formulas before working on the math!! C5H12O and C7H14O2 are the alcohol and acetate. I'm using rounded integer numbers for molar mass; you can refine and show your calculations of molar mass for the assignment.

Balanced equation: C5H12O + C2H4O2 ---> C7H14O2 + H2O

Moles 11.10/88 24.5 X 1.049/60 7.102/130 (actual)

0.126 0.428 0.0546

Since the reactants and products are all in 1:1 ratio, it is easy to see that the limiting reagent is C5H12O, and the theoretical yield will be 0.126 mol. Since the actual yield is 0.0546, the percent yield is

100 X 0.0546/0.126 = 43.3%, rounded off.