Limiting reagent:
i. The reactant which gets consumed and limits the amount of product formed is called the limiting reagent.
ii. When a chemist carries out a reaction, the reactants are not usually present in exact stoichiometric amounts, that is, in the proportions indicated by the balanced equation.
iii. This is because the goal of a reaction is to produce the maximum quantity of a useful compound from the starting materials. Frequently, a large excess of one reactant is supplied to ensure that the more expensive reactant is completely converted into the desired product.
iv. The reactant which is present in lesser amount gets consumed after some time and subsequently, no further reaction takes place, whatever be the amount left of the other reactant present.
Hence, limiting reagent is the reactant that gets consumed entirely and limits the reaction
