A student investigates the reactivity of five metals: aluminium, copper, iron, magnesium and zinc.
Experiment 1: The student adds equal-sized pieces of each metal foil to dilute hydrochloric acid and measures the volume of hydrogen made in 2 minutes.
| Metal | Volume of hydrogen made in 2 minutes (cm³) |
|---|---|
| aluminium | 3 |
| copper | 0 |
| iron | 9 |
| magnesium | 85 |
| zinc | 31 |
The student notices that the aluminium starts to fizz quickly after about 20 minutes in the acid.
Experiment 2: The student adds powder of each metal to solutions of metal sulfates.
| Metal added | Copper(II) sulfate solution | Iron(II) sulfate solution | Zinc sulfate solution | Magnesium sulfate solution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| aluminium | reaction | reaction | reaction | no reaction |
| copper | not done | no reaction | no reaction | no reaction |
| iron | reaction | not done | no reaction | no reaction |
| magnesium | reaction | reaction | reaction | not done |
| zinc | reaction | reaction | not done | no reaction |
Name the salt made when zinc reacts with dilute hydrochloric acid.
Deduce the order of reactivity of the five metals.
Explain how the results of both experiments support your order, and explain the results for aluminium in Experiment 1.
Explain your order in terms of the tendency of each metal to form positive ions.
Zinc reacts with copper(II) sulfate solution in Experiment 2.
Write the ionic equation for this reaction and identify the species that is oxidised.
60 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE Chemistry 4.1 Predicting chemical reactions, covering 4.1.1 Properties and trends in Groups 1, 7 and 0, 4.1.2 Properties of the transition metals, 4.1.3 Reactivity predicted from position in the Periodic Table, and 4.1.4 Reactivity of metals and the reactivity series. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.