Metals and their uses part 1

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  • Metals and their uses
    • Ores contain enough metal to make it economical to extract the metal. 
      • Cost of extraction may change overtime.
      • Ore -> concentrate -> chemical reaction -> metal
      • Most metals found a compounds so need chemical reactions for extraction
        • Very unreactive metals eg gold are found in pure form
    • Metals that are less reactive than carbon can be extracted from their oxides by reduction with carbon (displacement reaction)
      • Eg iron oxide + carbon -> iron + carbon dioxide
    • Metals that are more reactive than carbon are extracted by electrolysis
      • Large amounts of energy = very expensive
    • Extraction of Copper
      • Typically extracted from copper-rich ores by smelting (heating)
        • Then purified by electrolysis
        • Very damaging to the environment. Copper rich ores are running out
      • New methods being developed to use low grade ores.  (Phytomining and bioleaching)
        • Phytomining= plants. Plants absorb the metal compound, then are burnt. The ash contains the metal compund
        • Bioleaching= bacteria. uses bacteria to produce solutions that contain the metal compound.
          • Then both have to be purified by electrolysis or displacement using scrap iron
            • Phytomining= plants. Plants absorb the metal compound, then are burnt. The ash contains the metal compund
    • Why should we recycle metals?
      • Metal ores are running out.
      • Mining metals is very damaging to the environment
      • Extracting fresh metals uses more energy than recycling metals
    • Extracting aluminium and titanium is expensive because it involves lager amounts of energy and involves many stages.

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