This percent yield calculator helps you understand how to properly solve for percent yield using the percent yield formula. Finding the percent yield using the percent yield equation or this calculator is important, especially in terms of synthetic lab work and other chemistry-related processes.
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How to use the percent yield calculator?
This percent yield calculator is a simple online tool for you to find the percent yield value without having to use a percent yield formula. Whether you know how to calculate percent yield or not, you can use this online tool. Here are the steps to follow to use it:
- First, enter the value of the Actual Yield.
- Then enter the value of the Theoretical Yield.
- After entering both values, this calculator automatically provides you with the value of the Percent Yield.
What is the formula for percent yield?
By definition, the percent yield is a measure of how effective a synthetic procedure is. Simply put, this value tells you how efficiently you carried out the reaction. If you practice extreme caution when you’re preparing a solution making sure that nothing gets lost and that each of the molecules reacts properly, you’ll have a percent yield of 100%.
Conversely, if you made a mistake and you poured the whole mixture on the floor or down the drain, then you’d have a percent yield of 0%. This may seem confusing to a lot of people which is why it’s better to use the percent yield calculator to perform the calculations.
Still, if you want to do the calculation by hand, you should use the percent yield equation:
percent yield = (experimental mass of the desired product / theoretical mass of the desired product) * 100
For this equation, you must know two out of the three valuables. But it’s a flexible formula which means that it doesn’t matter which variables you know. Either way, you can still use the equation by rearranging it according to the missing value.
In the same way, if you need to find the value of the theoretical percent yield, you can use a theoretical yield calculator.
What are the steps to finding the actual yield?
Often, students in chemistry subjects must solve for the actual yields of chemical reactions to determine the efficiency of these reactions. The reaction efficiency dictates the practicality and use of the chemical reaction. Efficient reactions are more useful in industrial settings thus making them more valuable.
All chemical reactions have two yields. First, is the actual yield and second, is the theoretical yield. To compute for the actual yield, you must also have the theoretical yield so that you can determine the efficiency of the reaction. As for the theoretical yield, this is the value for a reaction that’s 100% efficient.
If you need to solve for the value of the actual yield, here are the steps to follow:
- Solve for the theoretical yield for the chemical reaction. This calculation may be quite complex so you may want to use a theoretical yield calculator for this step.
- Perform the laboratory reaction as carefully as possible to avoid “losing” or wasting any product. Make sure to use sterile lab equipment to avoid any impurities.
- Take the weight of the final product after completing the process. For wet products, allow all of the water to evaporate first before doing this step.
- Divide this weight by the value of the theoretical weight. Make sure to use the same unit of measurement for both values. If needed, convert one of the values before performing the calculation.
- Multiply the value you get by 100 in order to get the value of the actual yield. Express this value as a percentage of the theoretical yield from the first step.
What is the theoretical yield calculator?
In very rare cases, chemical reactions occur completely where no reactants get wasted. The number of products formed in this kind of reaction is a theoretical yield. This provides the idea of a reaction’s efficiency. You can find this value using a theoretical yield calculator.
Why is percentage yield important?
Percent yield is essential in the process of product manufacture. A lot of money and time gets spent on trying to improve percent yield for chemical productions. When manufacturers synthesize complex chemicals through various reactions, a single step which provides a low percent yield may cause unnecessary expense and a lot of reactant waste.
Generally, the values of percent yields fall below 100%. But any value over 100% is also possible if the reaction’s measured product contains any impurities which cause the mass to be more than it should be if you used a pure product. This is why you should purify the products of your reactions when you synthesize chemicals.
What causes a low percent yield?
In chemistry, the yield is also known as “reaction yield” and it refers to the amount of product you acquire from a chemical reaction. You can express the absolute yield as the weight in moles or in grams. The percentage yield aims to measure the efficiency of a synthetic reaction.
You can calculate this by dividing the amount of the desired product you obtained by the value of the theoretical yield. The latter refers to the amount predicted by what’s known as a “stoichiometric” calculation that’s based on the total number of moles of all the present reactants.
The calculation assumes that a single reaction occurs wherein the limiting reactant reacts fully. Normally, though, the value of the actual yield is always significantly smaller. This low percent yield occurs due to a number of reasons:
- Most reactions aren’t complete which means that the reactants don’t get converted into products completely. If there is a reverse reaction, the final state would contain both products and reactants which exist in a chemical equilibrium state.
- There’s a possibility of two or more reactions occurring at the same time. In such a case, some reactant gets converted to unwanted side products.
- Losses may occur in the process of separating and purifying the desired product from the mixture.
- The starting material may contain impurities which don’t react to provide you with the desired product.
