Professional Documents
Culture Documents
8.3 Metals
1. Metals have been extracted and used for many thousands of years.
1) Outline and examine some uses of different metals through history, including
contemporary uses, as uncombined metals or as alloys.
Age Dates Name of Uses of metal Properties of Metal
Metal
Copper 5000- Copper Ornaments Easy to work
Age 3000BC Tools Good conductor of electricity
Weapons Nice and shiny
Cooking Corrosion resistant
implements
Electrical Wires
Water pipes
Bronze 3000- Bronze an Cutting tools Lower melting point yet
Age 1000BC alloy of shields & armour harder than Copper
copper statues quite malleable and ductile
church bells
bearings
Iron Age From Iron Weapons and Very malleable and ductile
1000BC tools reasonably hard
Magnetic abundant in the crust
application quite heavy
Converted into very magnetic
carbon steels (iron-
carbon alloys)
used in building
construction
framework
cars
machinery
household
appliances
Modern Present o Aluminiu - Aluminium: - Aluminium:
Era day m saucepans, drink Low density
o Titanium cans, cooking foil high thermal conductivity
o Gold - Titanium: alloys very high corrosion resistance
used in spacecrafts very malleable and ductile
and aircrafts - Titanium:
Quite strong
- Gold: jewellery,
Quite malleable/ductile
electrical connections
- Gold:
Very malleable/ductile
Good electrical conductor
Shiny and lustrous
Corrosion resistant
2) Describe the use of common alloys including steel, brass and solder and explain how
these relate to their properties.
Preliminary Chemistry Metals Dot Point Summary
4) Identify why there are more metals available for people to use
now than there were 200 years ago.
- How early/late in history a metal was extracted depends on reactivity (hence
ease of extraction from ore) and its ability to be found uncombined
- As technology becomes more sophisticated, more metals are discovered and
extracted
- Improved technology = ability top extract more reactive metals (e.g. Al and NA
only discovered with invention of electrolysis)
2. Metals differ in their reactivity with other chemicals and this influences
their uses.
5) Describe observable changes when metals react with dilute acid,
water and oxygen.
Dilute acid:
Metal + acid salt + hydrogen
Zn(s) + 2HCL(aq) ZnCl2(aq) + H2(g)
Bubbles evolve, heat released.
All react except Cu, Ag, Au & Pt (Sn and Pb react slowly unless acid is heated).
Water:
Active metal + water hydrogen + base
2Na(s) + 2H2O(l) H2(g) + 2NaOH(aq)
Sn, Pb, Cu, Au, Pt do not react.
Oxygen:
Preliminary Chemistry Metals Dot Point Summary
Also, generally:
o Metals that react vigorously with dilute acid also react vigorously with water
and oxygen (active metals) e.g. sodium
o Metals that react less vigorously with dilute acid also react less vigorously with
water and oxygen (less active metals) e.g. zinc
o Metals that dont react with dilute acid also dont react with water or oxygen
(inactive metals) e.g. gold
- In all reactions atoms of the metal lose electrons to become positive ions
(ionisation)
When metals undergo ionisation, it is called oxidation
REDOX:
- Oxidation comes first, is about the element other than acid, water or O2.
From reaction with oxygen: {Na, K, Ca} > {Mg, Al, Fe, Zn} > {Sn, Pb, Cu} > {Au, Ag,
Pt}
From reaction with water: {Na, K, Ca} > {Mg, Al, Fe, Zn} > {Sn, Pb, Cu, Au, Ag, Pt}
From reaction with dilute acid: {Mg, Al, Fe, Zn} > {Sn, Pb} > {Cu, Au, Ag, Pt}
METAL ACTIVIY SERIES:
- As we go down list, ease of losing electrons decreases, ease of oxidation decreases,
reactivity decreases,Reacts with:of reduction increases
and ease
- List order determined by displacement reactions + reactions with oxygen, water and acid
RULE: A more reactive solid metal will displace a less reactive metal in a solution
e.g. Mg(s) + CuSO4(aq) MgSO4(aq) + Cu(s)
- Copper will appear around reaction site (magnesium = reaction site)
- If copper put into MgSO4, opposite will not happen, as copper is less reactive
Barium
Calcium
Magnesium
Aluminium
Zinc
Iron
Tin
Lead
Copper
Silver
Platinum Least reactive
Gold
- More active metals more recently discovered as their compounds are stable
and the metals are harder to extract (electrolysis- a relatively new discovery-
used to extract theses metals)
- Least active metals (e.g. gold) occur free in nature, and their compounds are
unstable
- Order of metals discovered and extracted is around the same as least to most
active in series
N.B. more reactive metals have more stable salts, less reactive metals have less
stable salts
Salts are a combined form of the metal, in less reactive metals they wont exist
for long breaks down to form pure metal
Body implants Expensive extremely inert titanium alloys or less expensive, but over
the long term corrosion-susceptible stainless steel?
More reactive
More reactive-
10) Identify the importance of first ionisation energy in determining
the relative reactivity of metals
First ionisation energy the energy required to remove an electron from a gaseous atom of
the element.
The lower the ionisation energy, the easier it is to remove an electron the more reactive it
is.
Reactivity of metals increases as their ionisation energy decreases
Metals with high ionisation energies are less reactive, and vice versa
Ionisation Energy
Increase
Decrease
Elements with low ionisation energies readily form positive ions, hence these elements
form ionic compounds (e.g. Na, Ca, Al)
+
+
- + -
+ +
-
Preliminary Chemistry Metals Dot Point Summary
Newlands (1864) Law of octaves: When elements arrange in order of increasing atomic
weight, the eighth element starting from a given one is a kind of repetition of the first like
the eighth note in an octave of music.
Moseley (1914) Determined atomic number of elements and arranged periodic table by
atomic number. Put forward modified periodic law: Properties of the elements vary
periodically with their atomic numbers.
Gase
Cov. s
Metals net
Boiling point
SAME AS MELTING POINT
Combining power (valency)
- Valency equals group number (except transitional metals), so its constant for a group
- Valency increases across a period (note some elements have variable valencies)
Electronegativity
- Numerical measure of the ability of an atom of an element to attract bonding electrons
towards itself when forming compounds
Increase Decrease
Reactivity
Metals
Preliminary Chemistry Metals Dot Point Summary
Decrease Increase
Non-metals (exceptions)
Increase Decrease
x 24.79 24.79
Problem: When 5.12g of lithium metal was reacted with excess oxygen, it was completely
converted to 11.05g of lithium oxide. Determine the compounds formula.
Solution
Oxygen used: 11.05 5.12 = 5.93g
Moles of oxygen: 5.93 16 = 0.37 moles of oxygen
Moles of lithium: 5.12 6.9 = 0.74
0.74 moles of lithium combines with 0.37 moles of oxygen
Divide by the smallest number to get whole numbers: 0.74 0.37 with 0.37 0.37
2 moles with 1 mole
Therefore the formula of the compound is Li2O
Coefficients of a chemical equation determine mole ratios of the products and reactants
- Allows us to calculate masses of reactants and products
4) Use ratio to calculate no. moles of required substance (ratio x no. moles given
substance)
5) Calculate mass of required substance
From Avogadros hypothesis; one molecule of hydrogen combines with one molecule of
chlorine to form two molecules two molecules of hydrogen chloride. Therefore a
molecule of hydrogen must contain at least two atoms of hydrogen as well as
chlorine.
Likewise, two molecules of hydrogen combine with one molecule of oxygen to form two
molecules of gaseous water. Because one molecule of oxygen contributes to two
molecules of water, it must contain at least two atoms of oxygen. Two molecules of
hydrogen (which cannot be monatomic as seen above) reacting with one
molecule of oxygen meant that water could not be HO, and so was most
likely H2O. No reactions could be found that required hydrogen, oxygen or chlorine to
Preliminary Chemistry Metals Dot Point Summary
split into more than two atoms so it was therefore concluded that they are all
diatomic, and water was therefore H2O.