PURPOSE The purpose of this experiment is to conduct a single displacement reaction using a reactant with impurities to deduce its effects on the actual yield of the precipitate by calculating percentage yield. INTRODUCTION In chemical reactions, there are limiting reagents which control the maximum yield of products. On the other hand, excess reactants are other reactants in a reaction that are left over or remain after the limiting reagent has been completely consumed. The maximum amount of product that any reaction can produce is called theoretical yield. To calculate theoretical yield, one must first write out a balanced chemical equation for the reaction to determine the number of moles of reactants used or products produced, in the reaction …show more content…
With the data collected from this chemical reaction percentage yield of the precipitate can be calculated to determine the effects of impurities in the reactants on percentage yield. PRE-LAB QUESTIONS 1. What is the balanced chemical equation for the reaction in this investigation? 2. Which reactant is considered impure in this investigation? The reactant that is considered impure in this investigation is the steel wool as it also contains carbon thus, it is not pure iron. 3. How might an impure reactant affect the percentage yield of a reaction? Explain. An impure reactant might decrease the percentage yield because impure substances contain less atoms of an element per mole than a pure substance. Consequently, there are less reactants in the reaction than what is expected. This causes the actual yield to be less than the theoretical yield so, an impure reactant should decrease the percentage yield of a reaction. 4. Why is it important to flush your skin with plenty of water if it comes in contact with copper (II) chloride dihydrate or hydrochloric