Reactivity Series Investigation
Experiment on
Metals
Aim-To find out which of these metals will be most reactive with hydrochloric
acid,and plan an investigation to test it out.The Metals
given:Calcium,Aluminium,Iron,Magnesium and Zinc.
Prediction-I predict that the metal will be the most reactive with hydrocholoric
acid is calcium because calcium is in Group 2 which is the alkaline earth
metals in the periodic table and because calcium is at the extreme left side of
the periodic table and as you go across a period,the element change from
reactive metals on the left to non reactive metals on the right.On the extreme
right of the periodic table is the noble gases.Also calcium is Group 2 which is
the alkaline earth metals and they are part of the reactive metals which is
Group 1 and 2.Also out of all of the metals given calcium reacts more faster
with air and creates a sparkling sight and can damage your eyes creating
calcium oxide in word equation it is Calcium+Oxygen equals calcium oxide.In
chemical equation it is 4Ca +O2 equals 2 Ca2o.Calcium also reacts more
than zinc,aluminum,iron and magnesium with water and much more violent
and quicker creating vapour and moves much faster than the other metal
and creates a vigrous sizzling sound and fizzing in water and dissloves much
faster than the other metals.
The alkaline metals get more reactive as you go down the group and calcium
is further down than magnesium so therefore it must be more reactive than
magnesium. Calcium is in group 2 in the periodic table which is more reactive
than iron and zinc in the transistion metals section of the periodic table
which is not very reactive because transisiton metals are the metals they
use to build structures or making things since they have high melting points
and high densities.Calcium is in group 2 and is the more reactive out of all
the metals is because group 2 metals in the periodic table have low melting
points than the transition metals which iron and zinc belong to and The 'poor
metals' which aluminium belong to and they also have low low densities
than the other metals.The next most reactive metal I think will be Magnesium
because magnesium is higher in the group 2 than calcium and therefore less
reactive than calcium and much more reactive than iron,zinc and aluminium
because when magnesium react with oxygen it is more reactive than Iron or
zinc or aluminium as we test it out when burning it.The magnesium sparkled
producing a white light and turned into another substance which can damage
your eyes if you look at it directly without any protective glass whereas the
iron and zinc and aluminium didn't react as violent as this because they didn't
turn into another sunstance but they did change colour.The end result of the
magnesium reacting with oxygen is magnesium oxide that is in word
equation magnesium+oxygen equals magnesium oxide.The chemical
equation is 4Mg+O2 equals to 2Mg2O.The other reason I think magnesium is
more reactive than the other metals apart from calcium is because
magnesium reacts more violent than iron, zinc and aluminium in water much
faster than them.The word equation for this reaction is Magensium+water
equals Magnesium hydroxide+hydrogen gas and the chemical equation is
2Mg+2h2O equals 2MgOH+H2.So if calcium and magnesium acts violently
with water and oxygen it will act more violently with dilute hydrocholoric acid.
Equipement:
-1 Gas syringe
-1 Stop clock
-5 Conical flask
-Delivery tube
-Powders 0.5g
-1 Bunsen Burner
-1 heat proof mat
-1 gauze mat
-1 tri-pod
-Top pan balance
-Hydrocholoric acid
-1 Spatula
-5 petri-dishes
-1 Clamp stand
-A box of Matches
-A Splint
-1 measuring cylinder
-Sticky labels
-1 thermometer
-1 bung
Plan-First of all collect all the equipment on the equipement list.Then get all
the different powders which aluminium powder,magnesium powder,calcium
powder,iron fillings and zinc powder.After getting all the powders get a
spatula and the top pan balance.Then plug in the top pan balance and weigh
the mass of each powder to 0.5g using the spatula and the petri dish to put
the powder in other wise it will be everywhere.The reason we are using the
plastic petri-dish is because they have less mass than beakers which we
have to do calculations.The petri-dish's mass is not only 0.01g whicle
beakers will be a lot heavier and therefore we have to take away beaker's
mass from the powder and beakers's mass.After weighing all the different
powders put them in the pertri-dish and put sticky labels on them writing
what each metal are so we don't get mixed up with the metals e.g.Suppose to
test aluminium but got zinc powder.After putting the labels on the powders
we are going get the measuring cylinder and measure hydrocholic acid which
is 15cm3 and after we measured it we are going to put it into a conical
flask.Repeat the measuring of the hydrocholic acid and putting it into the
conical flask till all the 5 conical flasks have 15cm3 of hydrocholic acid.Then
get the clamp stand and put the gas syringe in or set up the gas syringe make
sure it doesn't fall off.Then bung the delivery tube to one of the conical flask
so we can fit the delivery tube onto the top of the syringe where the gas
enters the syringe.Then we reset the stop clock if we have to and put the
calcium powder in the conical flask and when it is in the conical flask we
quickly start the stop clock.Then after 10 seconds we are going to take our
reading and record so we will do a reading every 10 seconds.For very
powder we are going to test for 2 minutes and so every powder will have 12
readings because there is 12 10 seconds in 2 minutes.So we are going to do
calcium poder first and then magnesium powder and then iron filings and
then zinc powder and then Aluminium powder.We will also record any
observations when the powder is in the acid and measure the temperature
after we finish the experiment so that we know a reaction has been taken
place and the extent of the reaction like if it is a vigrous reaction so that we
know which metal is most reactive.If the metal hasn't reacted with the cold
hydrocholic aicd then we are going to warm up the acid using a bunsen
burner and heat proof mat and tri-pod and a gauze mat.
We are going to do the experiment by putting the powder in the conical flask
with a bung and with the acid and afterwards we are going to light the
bunsen burner by turning the gas tap and strike the match and out it on the
bunsen burner so it could be lit.Then we turn the flame into normal flame for
20 seconds which we will start the stop clock once the acid is warming
up.After 20 seconds we will take the conical flask off the bunsen burner and
out it on the table with the delivery tube bung in and then start to record the
readings which is every 10 seconds and do it for 2 minutes like what we do
with the cold acid experiement.We will record the results and observations
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This is a preview of the whole essay
bunsen burner so it could be lit.Then we turn the flame into normal flame for
20 seconds which we will start the stop clock once the acid is warming
up.After 20 seconds we will take the conical flask off the bunsen burner and
out it on the table with the delivery tube bung in and then start to record the
readings which is every 10 seconds and do it for 2 minutes like what we do
with the cold acid experiement.We will record the results and observations
so we will know which metal reacted most vigrously.I would like to warm up
the acid for all of the powders so it can be fair test and not those powders
who did not react with the cold hydrocholic acid.I would like to repeat my
experiment with the cold acid 5 times to make the result more reliable and I
would like to repeat my experiement with the warm acid 5 times to make it
into a fair test and make sure that my results are more reliable.
Fair Test:We are going to make sure that we have the same person in the
group doing the stop clock so that it the person will have the same reacrion
as some people have more faster reaction than others.
We are going to have all the powders mass to 0.5g and all the hydrocholic
acid to 15cm3.We will use the same measuring cylinder and push the air out
of the syringe making sure that there is no gas in there when we do out
experiment or it will mess up our results and make it unreliable.We will use
the gas syringe methd to do the experiment for all the powders and not use
the other methods to do the experiement.Also we have each person in the
group doing a certain job like recording results or taking readings or doing
the stop clock so we know excately what we are doing.We will take readings
in every 10 seonds for all the powders.We will have only 20 seconds to warm
up the acid and same flame for the bunsen burner to warm the acid which is
normal flame.We will warm the acid for all the powders so
it is fair.
Safety:We will have to wear goggles to prevent our eyes being damaged
when the reaction take place because we don't know how the metal react
with the acid.We are going to have wear gloves and make sure that the there
is no powder in the flame or else a reaction will happen like calcium reacting
with oxygen and this is very dangerous so no powders will be in the
flame.Wearing gloves prevents the powders to get on your skin which may
Corrosive. Symptoms of redness, pain, and severe burn can occur.Don't
inhale the calcium or Inhalation produces damaging effects on the mucous
membranes and upper respiratory tract. Symptoms may include irritation of
the nose and throat, and labored breathing. May cause lung edema, a
medical emergency. Don't ingest any of the powders especially calcium or
elseIrritant due to formation of caustic lime by reaction with moisture. Large
amounts may have a corrosive effect. Abdominal pain or stricture, possible
nausea, vomiting, diarrhea are symptoms. Don't get the powders in your
eyes so wear goggles or Corrosive. Causes redness, pain; possible burns
and damage to eye tissues. If inhaled calcium powder, remove to fresh air. If
not breathing, give artificial respiration. If breathing is difficult, give oxygen.
Keep patient quiet in half upright position. Get medical attention
immediately.If swallowed calcium powder, DO NOT INDUCE VOMITING. Give
large quantities of water. Never give anything by mouth to an unconscious
person. Get medical attention immediately.If there is skin contact with
calcium powder Wipe off excess material from skin then immediately flush
skin with plenty of water for at least 15 minutes. Remove contaminated
clothing and shoes. Get medical attention. Wash clothing before reuse.
Thoroughly clean shoes before reuse. If calcium powder gets into your eyes
then Immediately flush eyes with plenty of water for at least 15 minutes,
lifting lower and upper eyelids occasionally. Get medical attention
immediately.Magnesium is also a dangerous metals so do not swallow,make
contact with eyes,get it on skin as the results can be similar to calcium.Last
of all make sure you do not swallow any powders,make eye contact or skin
contact or inhale as the metal could be dangerous.The hydrocholic acid
could be also dangerous and should avoid it with skin contact or eye contact
or inhalation or ingestion so wear goggles and gloves which prevents
contact with the acid.
Result
No Heat Heat
Iron Fillings Secs Gases cm3 Iron Fillings Secs Gas cm3
10 0 10 2
20 0 20 2
30 0 30 2
40 0 40 2
50 0 50 2
60 0 60 2
70 0 70 2
80 0 80 2
90 0 90 2
100 0 100 2
110 0 110 2
120 0 120 2
Zinc powder Secs Gases cm3 Zinc powder Secs Gas cm3
10 0 10 5
20 0 20 6
30 4 30 6
40 4 40 6
50 7 50 6
60 7 60 7
70 7 70 7
80 7 80 7
90 7 90 7
100 7 100 7
110 7 110 7
120 7 120 7.5
Calcium pieces Secs Gas cm3 Calcium pieces Secs Gas cm3
10 9 10 38
20 11 20 75
30 31 30 93
40 38 40 107
50 106 50 More than 112
60 106 60
70 112 70
80 More than 112 80
90 90
100 100
110 110
120 120
Aluminium powder Secs Gas cm3 Aluminium powder Secs Gas cm3
10 1 10 2
20 1 20 2
30 1 30 2
40 1 40 2
50 1 50 2
60 1 60 2
70 1 70 2
80 1 80 2
90 1 90 2
100 1 100 2
110 1 110 2
120 1 120 2
Magnesium powder Secs Gas cm3 Magnesium powder Secs Gas cm3
10 30 10 45
20 43 20 47
30 44 30 49
40 46 40 49
50 48 50 50
60 50 60 52
70 51 70 53
80 52 80 53
90 52 90 55
100 52 100 62
110 52 110 68
120 52 120 70
Conclusion
I have found out that the most reactive metal is calcium because calcium is in
Group 2 which is the alkaline earth metals in the periodic table and because
calcium is at the extreme left side of the periodic table and as you go across a
period,the element change from reactive metals on the left to non reactive
metals on the right.On the extreme right of the periodic table is the noble
gases.Also calcium is Group 2 which is the alkaline earth metals and they are
part of the reactive metals which is Group 1 and 2.Also out of all of the
metals given calcium reacts more faster with air and creates a sparkling sight
and can damage your eyes creating calcium oxide in word equation it is
Calcium+Oxygen equals calcium oxide.In chemical equation it is 4Ca +O2
equals 2 Ca2o.Calcium also reacts more than zinc,aluminum,iron and
magnesium with water and much more violent and quicker creating vapour
and moves much faster than the other metal and creates a vigrous sizzling
sound and fizzing in water and dissloves much faster than the other
metals.The alkaline metals get more reactive as you go down the group and
calcium is further down than magnesium so therefore it must be more
reactive than magnesium. Calcium is in group 2 in the periodic table which is
more reactive than iron and zinc in the transistion metals section of the
periodic table which is not very reactive because transisiton metals are the
metals they use to build structures or making things since they have high
melting points and high densities.Calcium is in group 2 and is the more
reactive out of all the metals is because group 2 metals in the periodic table
have low melting points than the transition metals which iron and zinc
belong to and The 'poor metals' which aluminium belong to and they also
have low low densities than the other metals and this agrees with my
predictionand that calicum is in a higher position in the reactivity series so
therefore it is more reactive than magnesium,aluminium,zinc and iron when it
is reacted with air or oxygen,water or steam and therefore is the most
reactive in reaction with hydrocholic acid.The product or the result of the
reaction of hydrocholic acid and calcium is calcium
chloride+hydrogen gas which is the gas that we have collected.I know the
gas inside the gas syringe is hydrogen gas is because we lit a splint and put
in the gas syringe and it produced a pop noise the flame went out.Also
calcium is the one that had a vigrous reaction compare to the other metals
without heat by fizzing the most with the acid and creating the most
vapour.Calcium was the metal that dissolved completly not like the other
metals and also had the highest temperature after the experiement about 45
degrees celsius which is a 6 degrees higher than magnesium and 15 degrees
higher than zinc and 30 degrees higher than iron and 17 degrees higher
thanaluminium.Calcium also gave out the most smell in the experiment or
the foulist smell without the heat.Also calcium is the most reactive metal out
of aluminium,zinc,magneisum and iron is because calcium gave out the most
gas compared with the others and the syringe is not long enough to measure
the gas given out by calcium without heat after 80 seconds which is more
than 112cm3 of gas.Calcium is the most reactive metal because it is given
out more than 60 cm3 more gas than magnesium when it is 80 seconds and
more than 112 cm3 gas than iron when it is 80 seconds and more than
05cm3 of gas than zinc when it is 80 seconds and more than 111 cm3 of gas
than aluminium.When we heated the calcium it is still the most reactive metal
because it fizzied much more than the other metals and dissolved the
quickest and completely in acid and bubbling alot with big bubbles which is
much more than the other metals.The temperature of the metal afterwards
was a shocking 60 degrees celsius and is a 12 degrees higher than
magnesium which is 48 degrees celsius and a 25 degrees higher than zinc
which is 35 degrees celsius and a 27 degrees celsius higher than aluminium
which is 33 degrees celsius and a 35 degrees higher than iron which is 25
degrees celsius.Calcium still had the foulist smell and the most vapour so
calcium is the most reactive metal.Calcium gave the most gas which is more
than 112 in 50 seconds which is more than 52 cm3 of gas than magnesium
which is 50 cm3 in 50 seconds and more than 110 cm3 of gas than iron
filings which 2 cm3 in 50 secondand more than 106cm3 of hydrogen gas than
zinc powder and 110cm3 of hydrogen gas more than aluminium powder.We
also got anothet set of result from another group and their result's show that
the calcium pieces reacted at 50 seconds when the acid has been heated
which is excately the same as our set of result.This set of result also showed
that calcium gave out the most hydrogen gas so therefore it is most
reactive.We also got another set of result which shows the heated acid
reacting with the metals and it shows that calcium is the most recative metal
by giving out the most hydrogen gas.
From the graph I can see that calcium is the most reactive metal as the line
graph goes up continuesly while the zinc,magnesium line in the graph stops
at a point and doesn't rise after that.The magnesium stops reacting around
about giving out 50cm3 of hydrogen gas and the zinc stops reacting around
about giving out under 10cm3 of hydrogen gas and that goes for both graphs
for the cold acid experiment.
From the heated acid graph I can see that calcium is the most reacive metal
because the graph shows that the calcium reacting very fast and go up to 50
seconds and is alreasy more than 112 cm3 of hydrogen gas whereas the
others are reacting very slowly although magnesium reacts quite fast but not
as fast as calcium and zinc,aluminium and iron is under 10cm3 of hydrogen
gas.The other group's result shows the same thing and that is table 2.
This relationship exists is also because the alkaline earth metals exist as
large divalent cations in all their compounds,in which the elements are
present in the 2+ oxidation state.The metals have a a gray-white luster when
cut but tarnish readily in air.They burn brilliantly in air when heated and form
the metal monoxide,except for barium,which forms peroxide.A certain
amount of nitride is formed simultanously especailly with calcium.All the
metals dissolve steadily in acid and the heavier members react as violently
as sodium.In the obesrvation table I can see that the only metal who
produced smoke is zinc when the acid is heated this is because zinc is a fairly
reactive metal chemically.It can be ignited with some difficulty to give a blue-
green flame in air and to discharge clouds of zinc oxide smoke so there is
oxygen in the conical flask which the zinc reacted with and produced
smoke.The reason that zinc is not the most reactive metal is because zinc
ranks above hydrogen in the electrochemical series and lower than calcium
in the reactivity series especially that metallic zinc in an acidic solution will
react to liberate hydrogen gas as the zinc passes into solution to form
dipostively charged zinclons zn2+.This reaction is slow with pure zinc and we
used oure zinc in our experiment.The reason that calcium is the most
reactive metal is because transition metals 's compounds,the transition
elements tend to exhinit multiple valency,the maximum valence increasing
from 3+ at the beginning of series(Sc,Y,Lu) to 8 + at the fifth
member(Mn,Re).For the elements in any vertical column,the highest
oxidation state is usually observed in the element at the bottom of the
column.Thus the highest oxidation state is usually obesrved in the element
of the bottom of the column where zinc is so that is why zinc is more reactive
than iron.Thus the highest oxidation state of iron is 6+,whereas osmium
attains the an oxidation state of 8+.The other reason that calcium is the most
reactive metal out of all the metals given is because aluminium is stable in air
and resistant to corrosion by seawater and many aqeuous solutions and
other chemical agents.This is due to protectection of the metal by a
tough,impervious film of oxide.Growth of this natural oxide film is self-
limiting.The thickness(about 5nm in dry air at room temperature) depends
upon conditions and time of exposure.At a purity greater than
99.5%,aluminium resists attack by most acids but dissolves in aqua regia.It is
used in the storage of nitric,concentrated sulphuric,and organic acids and
many other chemical reagents.Calcium metal dissolves readily in dilute or
concentrated hydrochloric acid to form solutions containing the aquated
Ca(II) ion together with hydrogen gas, H2.
Ca(s) + 2HCl(aq) Ca2+(aq) + 2Cl-(aq) + H2(g)
Magnesium metal dissolves readily in dilute sulphuric acid to form solutions
containing the aquated Mg(II) ion together with hydrogen gas, H2.
Corresponding reactions with other acids such as hydrochloric acid also give
the aquated Mg(II) ion although it is not reactive as calcium.
Mg(s) + H2SO4(aq) Mg2+(aq) + SO42-(aq) + H2(g)
Mg(s) + 2HCl(aq) Mg2+(aq) + 2Cl-(aq) + H2(g)
I also found out that heated acids react much quicker and faster than cold
acids and react more compare to the cold acids as the results of all the
metals go up faster and they are producing more hydrogen gas.
Evaluation
My plan has worked very well as the gas syringe took accurate readings
rather than any other methodwhich is the measuring cylinder method and
the bubbles method.I think my plan was very accurate and had a very good
way of testing which metal was the mose reactive was calcium.Although I
think alot has gone wrong in the experiement as my results are unreliable
because we are planning the experiment we said that we are going to use
powders which will be 0.5g but whem it comes to do the experiment we did
not have any calcium powders so we measured out 0.5g of calcium pieces
and this shows in the result as the magnesium result in the not heated acid
one shows that after 10 seconds there is 30cm3 of gas produced by the
reaction of the magnesium which is alot more than what calcium has
produced reacting with the hydrocholic acid which is only 9cm3 after 10
seconds.The reason that there is a difference between pieces of metal and
powder form of metal is that powder metals have a much more large surface
area than the pieces of metal so the magnesium powder has much more
surface area for the acid to act upon on or dissolve on then the calcium
pieces which is a much larger area and the acid takes long to break down the
pieces and to act upon and less area to act upon on so therefore it will be
slower to react compare to powder.The other reason that the magnesium
has reacted so quickly or seems to be reacting very quickly is because Rosy
did not push all the air out of the gas syringe so there could be air in there
when we did the magnesium experiment with the cold acid and this did affect
the results so this result is very odd.My plan has also worked well because I
know that certain metal is not going to react with the cold acid and to speed a
reaction you either increase the temperature to provide energy for a reaction
to happen or you increase the surface area or you increase the
concentration or the pressure and my plan suggested that we should heat up
the hydrocholic acid when it is not reacting which is the simplest method.My
plan also worked well as it is very fair and everything is measured out
accurately without any hassle with any mathematics and very fair
considering I have repeated the experiment or getting another set of results
from another group to see if my results are reliable and also doing the
experiment with the warmed up acid.I think the other reason that my results
are unreliable is because of the odd result which is zinc being more reactive
than aluminium and zinc should be less reactive than aluminium because of
the reactivity series and that aluminium reacts quite violently with acid if left a
bit longer and the aluminium is higher than the zinc in the reactivity series.
Aluminium metal dissolves readily in dilute sulphuric acid to form solutions
containing the aquated Al(III) ion together with hydrogen gas, H2. The
corresponding reactions with dilute hydrochloric acid also give the aquated
Al(III) ion.Aluminium did not react vilolently with the hydrocholic acid is
because aluminium's surface with covered with a thin layer of oxide to
protect the metal from attck by air and this could take the acid longer to break
through the oxide and then get to the metal where gases can be
produced.This is why that the amount of time we are doing each experiment
is not very long and should be increased to 4 minutes where we can know
that which metal is the most reactive and this could be an improvement to
the plan which is extending the time.There is not enough evidience to
support a firm conclusion because of the calcium pieces instead of calcium
powder which made the results look very weird and not enough time to
warm up the acid which should be extended to 40 or 50 secs so we can see
the reaction of iron and aluminium which reacts very slowly.There should be
results backing up the conclusion by doing further work and get a longer gas
syringe where I can read off the amount of hydrogen gas each metal is giving
out because there are results for the calcium experiment and the magnesium
experiment have gone over the limit for the gas syringe so we need a longer
one to make the results reliable.There should be more results to back up the
conclusion as I myself are not sure if the conclusion is valid and right
because of so many things went wrong.We should also have repeated the
experiment at least five times to make sure it is right and then we can make
an postive conclusion to this experiment.Also aluminium and iron do not
react well with hydrocholic acid but Aluminium metal dissolves readily in
dilute sulphuric acid to form solutions containing the aquated Al(III) ion
together with hydrogen gas, H2. The corresponding reactions with dilute
hydrochloric acid also give the aquated Al(III) ion. Concentrated nitric acid
passivates aluminium metal.
2Al(s) + 3H2SO4(aq) 2Al3+(aq) + 2SO42-(aq) + 3H2(g)
2Al(s) + 6HCl(aq) 2Al3+(aq) + 6Cl-(aq) + 3H2(g)
Iron also dissolves well with sulphuric acid as iron metal dissolves readily in
dilute sulphuric acid in the absence of oxygen to form solutions containing
the aquated Fe(II) ion together with hydrogen gas, H2. In practice, the Fe(II)
is present as the complex ion [Fe(OH2)6]2+.
Fe(s) + H2SO4(aq) Fe2+(aq) + SO42-(aq) + H2(g)
If oxygen is present, some of the Fe(II) oxidizes to Fe(III).
The strongly oxidizing concentrated nitric acid, HNO3, reacts on th surface of
iron and passivates the surface.So I think that a different kind of acid should
be used like sulphuric acid to see a reaction properly as aluminium and iron
do not react well with hydrocholic acid.My plan could be improved by adding
sulphuric acid to be reacting with the metals instead of hydrocholic acid.
