Percent Yield

It is the percent ratio of actual yield and theoretical yield. It is calculated by dividing the actual yield of the reaction by the calculated theoretical yield and then multiplying the result obtained by 100 to get the percentage. 

Percent Yield Equation

The formula or equation for percent yield is:

The value of actual yield is usually found to be lower than the theoretical yield and hence the percent yield is usually less than 100%. Percent yield helps us determine the economic feasibility of the reaction. The higher the percent yield, the more feasible is the reaction for commercial purposes because, on a commercial scale, we need to ensure that the maximum amount of products are produced from any chemical reaction.

Learn more about Percent Yield

Yield of a chemical reaction is the amount of the products that are produced when the reaction between two or more substances reacts with each other. Yield can be categorized as actual yield and theoretical yield. The theoretical yield of a reaction is based on the stoichiometry of the chemical reaction. Law of conservation of mass states that the mass of reactants that combine is equal to the mass of products formed but in real life, the amount of products produced is less as calculated due to various factors that affect the rate of reaction and the amount of products produced. These factors can be the conversion of some mass of reactants to heat, impurities in the products formed or impurities in the reactants, etc. The calculated amount of products is called the theoretical yield of the reaction whereas the actual amount produced is called the actual yield.