The actual yield is the amount of a product you actually get from a reaction. It’s important to know how much of your product you can expect from each reaction so that you can plan for the future. This article will teach you how to calculate your actual yield and compare it to theoretical yields so that you’re never surprised by what your reactions really produce!

Actual yield

You could think of the actual yield as your “real” yield. It’s what you get out of a reaction, rather than what you would have gotten if everything had gone according to plan. Theoretical yield is the most possible amount of product you could have made, assuming that everything went perfectly and there were no mistakes or errors in measurement along the way—which, if you’re working with chemicals and reactions that react violently when mixed together (like hydrogen gas and oxygen gas), isn’t likely to happen!

If a reaction’s theoretical yield is 100%, then that means you should get exactly what you expect to get. But in reality, things don’t work out perfectly every time. Sometimes you’ll have less actual yield than expected; sometimes you’ll have more. The actual value is always lower than the theoretical value because some of the reactants are used up by side reactions and/or they aren’t all converted into products during a given step in the reaction.

Theoretical yield

Theoretical yield is the amount of product you would get if you had 100% yield. This means that all of your reactants were used up and none was wasted. It’s called theoretical because it’s theoretical to think that you can reach a 100% yield!

In reality, most chemical reactions will not go to completion—meaning they won’t use all of their starting materials and leave some behind. This means that any calculation based on theoretical yields will overestimate how much product has actually been made and could lead to disappointment when you only get 70% of what you expected from your reaction.

How to calculate the actual yield

Actual yield is the ratio of the actual yield to the theoretical yield. The actual yield is always less than or equal to the theoretical yield, so you can use this equation:

\text {Actual Yield} = \text {Theoretical yield} \times \text {Percent yield}

Theoretical Yield is defined as the maximum amount of product that can be produced from a reaction. This value will depend on your specific reaction, but it’s often considered to be anywhere between 70%-85%.

FAQ

What is meant by actual yield?

The actual yield is the amount of product that is actually formed when the reaction is carried out in the laboratory.

Why are theoretical and actual yields different?

Usually, the actual yield is lower than the theoretical yield because few reactions truly proceed to completion or because not all of the product in a reaction is recovered.

How is the theoretical yield expressed?

Theoretical yield is commonly expressed in terms of grams or moles.