Percentage Yield

• theoretical yield is the amount you'd expect to get where is actual yield is what you really get.
• Reasons for less than 100% yield

  • Reactants might not all react, perhaps it is slow or is a reversible reaction that has reached equilibrium
  • There could be side reactions where the reactants produce a different product than the one we were expecting
  • We could lose some products during the process, gases can escape and if we filter something we might not capture all the liquid
• actual yield/theoretical yield x 100 = percentage yield