Displacement Reactions

• Displacement reactions are chemical reactions in which a more reactive metal displaces
a less reactive metal from an aqueous solution of one of its salts.
• This means that if one metal, e.g. magnesium, is more reactive than another metal within
a compound, e.g. copper (II) ions in copper sulfate, then the more reactive metal will
replace and kick out the less reactive metal ions in the compound.
Displacement reaction between magnesium and copper sulfate:
• Magnesium is more reactive than copper, so magnesium replaces copper in the salt (it
actually forms magnesium ions which react with the sulfate ions, and form magnesium
sulfate)

• This reaction cannot happen in reverse. Copper cannot displace magnesium from a
compound because copper is less reactive than magnesium
• Displacement reactions do not only tell us information about the
reactants, but they also have many important applications in chemistry,
• These include the production of metals from their ores and the analysis
of unknown compounds.
Extracting iron
• As iron is below carbon in the reactivity series it can be displaced from its
compounds by heating with carbon.
• Iron is extracted from iron ore in a large container called a blast furnace.
• Iron(III) oxide is reduced to molten iron when it reacts with carbon. The
overall reaction is:
Fe2O3(s) + 3CO(g) → 2Fe(l) + 3CO2(g)
• The iron oxide is reduced and the carbon is oxidized.
• These reactions happen because carbon is more reactive than iron, so
it can displace iron from iron compounds.
• Extracting a metal by heating with carbon is cheaper than using
electrolysis