Question

Consider this reaction equation: 2Na + Cl2 → 2NaCl. What is the number of moles of electrons transferred?

Answer 1

Answer:

First you need to find what's the limiting reactant. In this case, you have the same number of moles of Cl2 as you do Na, but your chemical equation says you need 2x as much Na per mole of Cl2 to completely react, so Na is your limiting reactant.

Using your chemical equation, you can see that with .6 moles of Na, you can only react with .3 moles of Cl2.  

Since you now know you'll only be using .6 moles of Na, your chemical equation tells you that the number of moles of Na you have and the number of moles NaCl that will be produced are in a 1:1 ratio, so .6 moles Na with an excess of Cl2 will give you .6 moles NaCl.

Explanation: