[metals] can vary greatly from one another in terms of their appearance properties uses and reactivity
Gold as an example is yellow relatively hard and very unreactive
Potassium on the other hand is gay
relatively soft and reacts vigorously with oxygen and water
We can actually organize these metals according to their reactivity
This arrangement is known as the reactivity [series]
The most reactive metals are at the top and the least reactive at the bottom
We can use this series to predict whether or not a single displacement reaction will occur
This is often of importance in industry as can be used to obtain pure forms of valuable metals
From their compounds a single displacement reaction is a reaction
whereby one Element
displaces another within a compound
The key idea here is that a certain element can only displace another in a compound?
if it is more reactive
Here is an example
When we add a strip of [zinc] to an aqueous solution of copper to sulfate we can see from the reactivity
[series] that zinc is more reactive than copper and can therefore
Displace copper in Copper to sulfate we can see this happening over time the bright blue copper to sulfate solution
Gradually turns into colorless [synC] sulfate and copper Metal
begins to deposit on the sink strip
can you predict the products from this single displacement reaction pause the lesson and continue when ready as
Copper is more reactive than silver it can display silver silver nitrate
producing silver metal and aqueous copper to nitrate if
You look closely at the series you will see that hydrogen and carbon are added for
comparison purposes this is important to help predict whether or not a metal will react with an acid or
if it can be extracted from another compound
Magnesium Metal will dissolve in hydrochloric acid releasing hydrogen gas and forming aqueous
Magnesium chloride
Since platinum is lower than hydrogen on the series
It will be unreactive in hydrochloric acid this series is also
Important when it comes to the extraction of metals from their ores
malachite contains a high percentage of copper to carbonate
heating copper to carbonate decomposes
it to copper to oxide when you add charcoal a form of carbon this enables the
Extraction of copper metal as the series tells us that it is more reactive than copper
Can you predict the products of this reaction?
Pause the lesson and continue when ready
Here is the answer in
summary the reactivity series
Ranks metals according to their reactivity and can be used to predict whether or not a reaction will happen