I'm having a hard time understanding limiting reactant and excess reactant. I know what they means but like i don't get how to find it and stuff.
So an example problem:
4NH3 + 5O2 = 4NO + 6H2O
If a container were to have 10 molecules of O2 and 10 molecules of NH3 initially, how many total molecules (reactants plus products) would be present in the container after this reaction goes to completion?
Well, you know that O2 is the limiting reactant in this, because it requires more of it, but you have the same amount of it as NH3. When you've used 10 molecules of O2, you will have only used 8 molecules of NH3. For every 5 molecules of O2, you're going to get 10 total molecules of products (4+6), and since you used 10, there are 20 molecules of products, plus the 2 leftover molecules of NH3.