[deepblueday]

Right, I've studied this for ages but my mind seems to be very slow...I can't figure it out!

The set question goes as follows:

A reaction between 1-Chloropropane (13.7g) and Sodium Cyanide (10.9g) gave, after purification,
butanonitrile (CH₃CH₂ CH₂CN) (6.65g).

The first part of the problem is identifying the limiting reagent. This may be a bit long winded, but
what I've come up with so far is...

1-Chloropropane = 78.536g mol^-1 so 13.7/78.536 = 0.1744 in reaction.

Sodium Cyanide = 49.01g mol^-1 so 10.9/49.01 = .02224 in reaction.

I am fairly sure the 1-Chloropropane is the limiting reagent, but am not certain it is. I'm not sure if
the equation is finished...Also the next part of the question is calculation the theoretical yield of butanonitrile in grams
but for that I need to know how many mols of each reagent there are. Believe me I've tried but am stuck now!

Thanks in advance for any help offered!

[Borek]

http://www.chembuddy.com/?left=balancing-stoichiometry&right=limiting-reagents