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10 Limiting & Excess Reagents

The level of excess reagent required in an actual material-processing is given by: % excess = [(na nR) / nR] x100 wherena is the actual mass and nR is the mass required by the reaction. In most cases, an excess of one or more reactants will be deliberately added. There are several reasons for this; those are: 1. it is thermodynamically impossible for a reaction to go to completion unless an excess of one or more reactants is present,

2. many reactions simply go faster if there is a large excess of one or more reactant, and 3. in solid-state reactors, where getting good mixing can be a problem, adding an excess of one or more compounds can help ensure the reactants stay in contact with each other .