The yield of a reaction is the amount of product produced. The theoretical yield is the amount of product that is predicted by the balanced equation. The actual yield is the amount of product obtained in an experiment. The percent yield describes what percent of the theoretical yield was actually obtained in an experiment:
Example:
Starting with 8 moles of sodium nitrite and 6 moles of sulfuric acid, the reaction proceeds to yield 5 moles of nitric oxide. What is the percent yield?
Sodium nitrite is the limiting reagent and should produce 16/3 moles of nitric oxide. The percent yield is therefore
