Stoichiometry Lab Report

Introduction:
Stoichiometry is the relationship between reactants and products in a chemical reaction. It is the relationship between the number of moles of various products and reactants in a chemical reaction (Stoichiometry). In chemistry it is very important to understand this relationship.This reaction was explored in order to gain a deeper understanding of limiting reagents in chemical reactions. When one reactant is in excess, the other reactant is referred to as the limiting reagent. This experiment explored the relationship between two reactants, one held constant and one varied and how they affected the product yield. Students analyzed how the limiting reagent in the reaction of sodium iodate and calcium chloride affected the amount …show more content…
From the graph, one can see that the mass of product eventually stops increasing even though the amount of calcium chloride is still increasing. This is because sodium iodate is the limiting reagent. No matter how much more calcium chloride is added to the sodium iodate, after a certain point, the mass of the product will no longer increase. In this experiment, the mass of product obtained levels off at about 0.69g while the mass of calcium chloride is at 0.55g. After that, more calcium chloride is added, but the mass does not increase. The slope of the graph is steep until calcium chloride reaches .55g, the slope of the graph becomes nearly horizontal. As more calcium chloride is added, the graph became less steep. The data was analyzed the way it was to help students determine what the limiting reagent in the chemical reaction was and how it affected the amount of product created.
Students looked that the data quantitatively and did so using moles. The mole is the most useful unit of measurement in chemical reactions because it is the easiest way to convert to mass or vice versa. It's difficult to compare molecules based on their masses, so in chemical reactions it's easiest to understand in terms of moles. For example, in this reaction, 2 moles of sodium iodate and 1 mole of calcium chloride react to form 2 moles of sodium chloride and 1 mole of calcium

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