Acid + Reactive Metal

Acid + Reactive Metal

  1. Acids react with metals that is more electropositive than hydrogen in the electrochemical series to produce salt and hydrogen gas.
  2. Acids do not react with copper and silver.
  3. This is actually a displacement, where the metals that are placed above hydrogen in Electrochemical Series displace hydrogen from acid.
Acids + Reactive Metal → Salt + Hydrogen Gas

Example:

Sulphuric acid + Zinc
H2SO4 + Zn → ZnSO4 + H2
Nitric acid + Lead
2HN3 +Pb→Pb (NO3)2 + H2

Example of Experiment

Procedure

  1. About 5 cm³ of dilute sulphuric acid is poured into a test tube.
  2. One spatula of zinc powder is added into the acid.
  3. A burning wooden splinter is placed at the mouth of the test tube.
  4. The observations are recorded.


Observation
Colourless gas is released. A “pop” sound produced when the wooden splinter is placed at the mouth of the test tube.


Inference
Hydrogen gas is released

Chemical Equation
H2SO4 + Zn → ZnSO4 + H2

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