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Question

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Question: Na + Cl₂ --> NaCl

If you were given 15 grams of sodium (with excess chlorine) and asked to determine the amount of NaCl that would be produced (in grams), how would you go about doing it. Be as specific as possible and include numerical values when necessary.

Answer 1

The first thing you need to do is make sure you have a balanced chemical equation. Your reaction currently has 2 Cl atoms on the reactant side, but only 1 on the product side, so it is not balanced yet. You'll need to add a coefficient of a 2 on the product side (2 NaCl) to balance the Cl's, but then that unbalances the Na's, so you will need to add a coefficient of 2 to Na on the reactant side. You should end with this equation:

2 Na + Cl₂ --> 2 NaCl

Now that your equation is balanced, you will need to do stoichiometry to calculate the theoretical yield of NaCl. To do that, start with the 15 g of Na that they gave you and convert that into moles using molar mass, then use the mole ratio (from your balanced equation) to convert that into moles of product. Finally, convert that into grams of product using the molar mass of NaCl. Make sure your units cancel out diagonally down to the right (e.g., grams of Na that you start with cancels out the grams of Na on the bottom of the first conversion fraction). In each step, you should only be changing one thing: either the unit (e.g., moles to grams) or the compound (using the mole ratio). To solve, multiply everything across the top and divide everything across the bottom. I hope that helps!

15 g Na x 1 mol Na x 2 mol NaCl x 58.44 g NaCl

22.99 g Na 2 mol Na 1 mol NaCl