Methanol (ch3oh) can react with oxygen gas to produce formaldehyde (h2co) and water. How many mole of formaldehyde can be produc

Question

Vera_Pavlovna

4 days ago

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Methanol (ch3oh) can react with oxygen gas to produce formaldehyde (h2co) and water. How many mole of formaldehyde can be produc

ed by reacting 4.0 moles of methanol with 4.0 moles of oxygen gas

Chemistry

2 answers:

lorasvet [2.5K] · Answer 1 · 2026-04-01T00:37:26+03:00

Answer: The quantity of moles for formaldehyde produced would equate to 4 moles.

Explanation:

For formaldehyde, the moles tally is 4.0 mole $CH_3OH$

For oxygen, it is also 4.0 mole

$O_2$

Initially, we must identify the limiting and excess reactants.

The balanced chemical equation would be:

$2CH_3OH(l)+O_2(g)\rightarrow 2H_2CO(l)+2H_2O(l)$

Through the analysis of the balanced equation, we find that

In this case, 2 moles of $CH_3OH$ will react with 1 mole of $O_2$ Thus, 4 moles of $CH_3OH$ will interact with $\frac{4}{2}=2$ moles of $O_2$

From this, it becomes clear that $O_2$ is the excess reactant since the provided moles exceed the those required while $CH_3OH$ is the limiting reactant, restricting the amount of product formed.

Next, we compute the moles of $H_2CO$ .

Because, 2 moles of $CH_3OH$ yield 2 moles of $H_2CO$

Consequently, 4 moles of $CH_3OH$ will generate 4 moles of $H_2CO$

Therefore, the total number of moles of formaldehyde formed will be 4 moles.

lorasvet [2.5K] · Answer 2 · 2026-04-01T00:39:20+03:00

The total number of moles of formaldehyde that can result from the reaction of 4.0 moles of methanol with 4.0 moles of oxygen gas totals 8 moles

Explanation

Formulate a balanced chemical equation

2 CH3OH (l) + O2 (g) → 2HCOH (l)+ 2H2O (l)

Observing the equation, 2 moles of CH3OH react with 1 mole of O2 resulting in 2 moles of HCOH and 2 moles of H2O

From this we note that O2 is the limiting reactant, thus applying the mole ratio of O2: HCOH, which is 1:2, the moles of HCOH= 2 x4 = 8 moles