Reactivity Series

Question 1

What is the order of the reactivity series?

Answer 1

highest reactivity to lowest:
potassium, sodium, lithium, calcium, magnesium, aluminium, carbon, zinc, iron, tin, lead, hydrogen, copper, silver, gold, platinum

Question 2

What is the reactivity series?

Answer 2

a list that ranks metals on their reactivity from highest to lowest. It can help us understand how susceptible certain metals are to react with water and acids.

Question 3

How do metals react with water?

Answer 3

highly reactive metals will react vigorously and produce hydrogen gas + a metal hydroxide

medium reactive metals will react with water (or steam) but not as violently and hydrogen gas will be produced. a metal oxide/hydroxide may be produced as well.

low reactive metals don’t react with water at all

Question 4

What are some types of dilute acids?

Answer 4

dilute HCl, dilute H2SO4, dilute HNO3

Question 5

How do metals react with dilute acids?

Answer 5

highly reactive metals will react explosively and produce hydrogen gas + salt

middle reactive metals will react but less vigorously and maybe produce hydrogen gas and salt

low reactive metals will not react at all

Question 6

Do all metals in the reactivity series react with water?

Answer 6

many metals are too low in the series to even react with water

Question 7

What are displacement reactions?

Answer 7

a metal will displace another metal from it’s oxide if it is lower than them in the reactivity series (as well as from their salt)