Question

The carbon dioxide exhaled by astronauts can be removed by its reaction with lithium hydroxide, LiOH, according to the following chemical equation: CO2(g) + 2LIOH(s) — LI2CO3(s)
+ H2O4). How many moles of lithium carbonate are produced when 20.0 mol CO2 the average
amount exhaled by a person each day, reacts completely with lithium hydroxide?

Answer 1

Answer:

20.0 mol

Explanation:

The balanced chemical equation is already given for this process. According to the corrected balanced chemical equation, carbon dioxide reacts with 2 moles of lithium hydroxide to produce 1 mole of lithium carbonate and 1 mole of water:

$2 LiOH(aq)+CO2 (g)\rightarrow Li_2CO_3 (aq)+H_2O (l)$

Notice that the problem states that 20.0 mol of carbon dioxide react completely. This implies that carbon dioxide is the limiting reactant. According to the balanced chemical equation, 1 mole of carbon dioxide produces 1 mole of lithium carbonate (pay close attention to the coefficients in the balanced chemical equation).

This means if we have 20.0 mol of carbon dioxide, we can produce a maximum of 20.0 mol of lithium carbonate.