What happens when a piece of
(a) zinc metal is added to copper sulphate solution?
(b) aluminium metal is added to dilute hydrochloric acid?
(c) silver metal is added to copper sulphate solution?
Also, write the balanced chemical equation if the reaction occurs.
(a) When zinc reacts with a solution of copper sulphate, we obtain Zinc Sulphate and Copper.
Zn + CuSO4→ Cu + ZnSO4
Zinc lies above Copper in the activity series.
The activity series of metals refers to the list of metals ranked in the decreasing order of their reactivity in order to displace Hydrogen gas from water or acid solutions. It helps us in predicting which metal will displace which metal in Acidic solutions.
(b) Aluminium chloride is formed and Hydrogen gas is evolved when Aluminium is made to react with dilute Hydrochloric acid.
2Al + 6HCl → 2AlCl3 + 3H2
(c) Silver being less reactive than Copper, we see no reaction taking place when silver metal is added to copper sulphate solution.