In: Chemistry
if the percentage recovery of acetanilide was 50% , what does that mean?
The percentage recovery is complementary to percentage yield.
If a reaction does n't go to 100 % complete conversion to product. Some amount of starting material will be left. So the unreacted starting material can the recovered from reaction mixture through purification techniques like column chromatography or crystallization, etc.
Percentage recovery of actanilide of 50% means the percentage of unreacted acetanilide is 50 % of the total acetanilide used as starting material in the reaction.