9F Patterns of reactivity

9F Patterns of reactivity

Metals and the air

The reactivity series

Metal extraction

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9F Patterns of reactivity

Metals and the air

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9F The trouble with cars...

The trouble with cars...

is that most cars are made of steel, which is mainly iron.

Do you think these materials would last longer than iron?

zinc aluminium gold

plastic wood glass

Why do we make cars out of steel?

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9F Corrosion

Many metals react with oxygen in the air.

Over time, a thin layer of metal oxide covers the surface of
the metal. We call this tarnishing.

Some metals carry on reacting below the surface and their

structure is destroyed. This corrosion wears away the metal.

You can prevent this by painting the metal.

How does the paint stop the metal tarnishing?

Or you can choose a metal that does not react

with the air – like gold.

But a gold bridge would be very expensive!

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9F The metal-corrosion Gold Cup

Meet the starters in the metal-corrosion Gold Cup!

The hot favourite is potassium.

Gold has poor prospects – people say it won’t run well.
Who’s your money on?
They’re under starters orders...
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9F The metal-corrosion Gold Cup

Which metal corroded fastest? Which didn’t corrode at all?

Were your predictions correct?
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9F Keywords

rusting corrosion
Match each word or phrase unreactive metal oxide
with its correct meaning. tarnishing patina

corrosion a metal breaking down by reacting with oxygen

(and sometimes moisture)
metal oxide a compound containing only a metal and oxygen
tarnishing to gather a thin layer of discoloration by
reacting with the air
unreactive describes a material that does not react
patina a thin layer of green on the surface of copper
rusting the corrosion of iron, which reacts with
oxygen and water to form flaky iron oxide

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9F What can you trust about rust?

True or False?

1. Metals
2.
3.
4.
5. All
Aluminium
Rusting
Nitrogen
metals
will
isfrom
corrode
not
aistype
special
corrode
theof
air
atcorrosion
because
the
isifthe
air
same
gas
and
reaction.
ofrate
that
water
its at
oxide
iron
cannot
thereacts
layer.
same
getwith
to
when it starts to corrode.
them.
temperature.

We
It’s use
oxygen!
Aluminium
TRUE! Corrosion
FALSE! Metals the wordat
doesn’t
corrode
needs ‘rusting’
corrode
different
oxygen for
from the
thecorrosion
because
rates: theits
air, of
oxide
more
and
iron,
reactive
layer since
a metal
the
protects
sometimes it.flaky
water is, the
redpart
takes more
iron in
oxide
quickly
thatit forms
the reactionwill too.
is
corrode.
called rust.

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9F Patterns of reactivity

The reactivity series

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9F He’s just so reactive!

Anyone like to explain what reactivity means?

Which is the more reactive atom?
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9F Reactivity in chemistry

What does reactivity mean?

Elements that are reactive readily take part in
reactions with other chemicals.
But an element might react very quickly with one chemical
and hardly at all with another. So is it reactive or not?
To compare the reactivity of different elements,
we might see how easily they react with oxygen.

Some metals corrode in

minutes out on the bench.

Others take longer to corrode,

unless you heat them.

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9F The Gold Cup again?

We can list metals most reactive

in order of how
quickly they react
with oxygen.

This ranking of
metals according
to reactivity is
called the least reactive
speed of reaction with oxygen
reactivity series.

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9F Reaction of metals with acid

What if we react different metals with acid?

iron
lead –– the
copper
magnesium
sodium –– no
the the–bubbles,
metal
metal
metal
the
reacts
reacts
metal
bursts
noslowly,
very
reacts
reaction
into
slowly,
producing
flames,
quickly
with
producing
acid
with
a very
a few
thestrong
very
bubbles
acid,few
reaction
bubblesproducing lots of bubbles
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9F What about water?

We can also rank metals by their reaction with water.

Compare with the reactivity series for oxygen and acid.
reactivity series with
oxygen acid water
potassium potassium potassium
sodium sodium sodium
magnesium magnesium magnesium
zinc zinc zinc
iron iron iron
lead lead lead
copper copper copper
gold gold gold

The reactivity series is very useful. How can we learn it?

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9F Remembering the series

metal symbol useful mnemonic?

potassium K Kangaroos
sodium Na Naturally
magnesium Mg Muck
aluminium Al About in
zinc Zn Zoos
iron Fe For
lead Pb Purple
hydrogen H Hippos
copper Cu Chasing
gold Au Aardvarks

Come on, you can think of a better mnemonic!

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9F Test your reactivity

Put each metal in the

correct box in the
reactivity series. potassium
sodium
magnesium
magnesium zinc
iron potassium aluminium
zinc
iron
lead
hydrogen
copper
gold

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9F Using the series

The reactivity series allows you to make predictions.

Choose from the box below. What will happen when you mix...
...a metal …and an acid?

potassium hydrochloric acid very violent reaction

magnesium hydrochloric acid fast reaction

iron hydrochloric acid gas bubbles form slowly

copper hydrochloric acid nothing happens

gold hydrochloric acid nothing happens

nothing happens gas bubbles form slowly

fast reaction nothing happens
very violent reaction
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9F Feeling a bit displaced?

A displacement reaction happens

when one metal replaces another
one in a compound.

Magnesium is more reactive

than copper.

Magnesium displaces copper

from copper sulphate solution.

What evidence can you see that a reaction has happened?

Complete the word equation.

magnesium + copper sulphate magnesium sulphate + ?

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9F Predicting displacement reactions

A more reactive metal displaces a less reactive one.

True or false?
potassium most reactive
Copper
Iron
Magnesium
Zinc
displacesdisplaces
displaces
displaces
gold but
sodium
sodium
copper
cannot compounds
magnesium
from
displace
copper
from
magnesium from
sulphate,
magnesium solution.
magnesium.
and nitrate
the blue
zinc coloursolution.
disappears.
iron
lead True!
False!
copper
gold least reactive

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9F A model for displacement reactions

This model will help explain displacement reactions.

Think of reactivity as aggression!

Write a word equation for this reaction.

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9F Patterns of reactivity

Metal extraction

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9F Finding metals

All the metals we use are

found in the Earth.
To extract the metal, we first
dig up the ore.
Then we carry out chemical
reactions to get the pure
metal out of its compound.
The cost of a metal depends on:
• how hard it is to find and dig up the ore
• how reactive the metal is.
Why is the reactivity so important?

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9F The easy ones are at the bottom

Gold and silver are simple to extract. You

might find lumps lying around in river beds
potassium (if you’re lucky!). You just pick them up.
sodium
magnesium You can also find copper metal in some rocks.
aluminium Sometimes you find copper oxide in ore, but
(carbon)
zinc
it’s easy to extract.
iron
lead Carbon is cheap and plentiful (as coal). If you
copper heat copper oxide with carbon, the carbon takes
silver the oxygen to make carbon dioxide and leaves
gold
copper metal. What sort of reaction is this?

Write a word equation for copper oxide

reacting with carbon.
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9F Getting tougher

Zinc, iron and lead are found in the Earth as

compounds, in ores. Like copper, they can
potassium be extracted by heating with carbon.
sodium
magnesium The carbon takes the oxygen from the
aluminium metal to make carbon dioxide.
(carbon) It often needs a very high temperature:
zinc
about 700°C for iron.
iron
lead
copper Zinc needs a higher temperature than
silver lead. Why?
gold
Write a word equation to show the
displacement reaction when lead oxide
reacts with carbon.

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9F The downright awkward are at the top

Potassium, sodium, magnesium and

aluminium are very difficult to extract.
potassium
They are very reactive. They hold on tightly
sodium
magnesium to the other elements in their compounds.
aluminium
(carbon)
zinc Carbon cannot displace these elements no
iron matter how hard you heat it. Why not?
lead
copper
silver We use electrolysis to extract these
gold metals from their ores. An electric current
passes through the molten mineral. This
breaks it down so we get out the pure
metal. The process is very expensive.

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9F Extract the truth!

True or False?

1. More
2.
3.
4. Gold
AIron
metal
isoccurs
reactive
easier
that in
corrodes
to
metals
aextract
mineral
are
quickly
from
that
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is
will
difficult
difficult
orebethan
easy
to
tosodium.
extract
break
to extract
from
their minerals
down.
from itsThat
ore.is why
than gold
less is
reactive
so expensive.
metals.
FALSE!
TRUE!
TRUE! Think
FALSE!Iron
IfGold about
aismetal
less the ‘reactivity
oftencorrodes
reactive.
exists asIt
easily dog’.
justpure
the needsThe
it means itscarier
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and with
needs
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the noSo
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needs expensive
difficult
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theto because
extract.
metal), the it
is rare.
more difficult it is to remove the bone (the
other elements).

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