Question

A student used 1.506 g of p-cresol and 1.992 g of t-butanol in the synthesis of BHT. Which is the limiting reagent and how many moles of BHT can be formed?

Answer 1

The reaction for the formation of BHT is as shown.

The molar masses of p-cresol and t-butanol are 108.14 g/mol and 74.12 g/mol respectively.
1.506 g p-cresol corresponds to moles.
1.992 g of t-butanol corresponds to moles.
1 mole of p-cresol will react with 2 moles of t-butanol.
0.0139 moles of p-cresol will react with 0.0278 moles of t-butanol. However only 0.02688 moles of t-butanol are present. Hence, t-butanol is the limiting reagent. 2 moles of t-butanol will give 1 mole of BHT. Number of moles of BHT produced moles.