Displacement Reactions of Metals.

Method

   Firstly gather up all the apparatus required (as shown above). Put all the copper and zinc strips into separate test tubes. Fill around 1/6 of two test tubes (one with a copper strip and another with a zinc strip) with Silver Nitrate. Then repeat this with the other solutions; Copper Sulphate and Lead ‘2’ Nitrate. A simplified version of this is shown below:

      Now leave the test tubes for between 20-40 minutes. By now on some of the strips, small crystals should have formed and this will be noted in our table of results. After the experiment is over we need to pour the contents of our test tubes into different beakers and not down the lab sinks. The last thing we need to do is to put all our equipment away.

Results

   Below is a table showing my results. I have included the solution, metal and then a comment of what I saw:

Conclusion

   A Chemical reaction takes place (“Displacement reaction”), when the metal added is higher up in the activity series than the metal present in the salt solution. When this happens we saw the crystals formed. For example when using the zinc strip and Silver Nitrate many black crystals of silver were produced.  The more reactive metal, zinc displaced the less reactive metal silver, from its compounds. However, when we mixed the copper strip with the Lead ‘2’ Nitrate, no chemical reaction occurred. This is because the copper is not high enough in the activity series to replace the lead so no reaction takes place.

   When we dipped the zinc strip into the Copper Sulphate, the zinc displaces the copper. The previously blue copper solution looses its colour in the reaction and the zinc gets coated in a dark red-brown copper metal.

   To conclude: with a more reactive metal (one higher up in the activity series) will always displace a less reactive metal (one lower down in the activity series) from its compounds. The more reactive metal takes away the non-metal from the less reactive metal. Displacement reactions can be very useful in our daily lives as they are frequently used to produce electricity in batteries.