If 5.65 grams of zinc metal react with 21.6 grams of silver nitrate, how many grams of silver metal can be formed and how many grams of the excess reactant will be left over when the reaction is complete? Show all of your work.

unbalanced equation: Zn + AgNO3 Zn (NO3) 2 + Ag

The balanced chemical reaction is:

Zn + 2AgNO3 = Zn (NO3) 2 + 2Ag

To determine the amount of the reactant left, we have to determine which is the limiting and the excess reactant. We do as follows:

5.65 g Zn (1 mol / 65.38 g) = 0.09 mol Zn

21.6 g AgNO3 (1 mol / 169.87 g) = 0.13 mol AgNO3

The limiting reactant would be silver nitrate since it is consumed completely in the reaction. The excess reactant would be zinc.

Excess Zinc = 0.09 mol Zn - (0.13 / 2) mol Zn = 0.025 mol Zn left