Acids reacting with metals

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  • Created by: Fifi
  • Created on: 12-03-13 22:37

Acids and metals

Acid + Metal ------> Salt + Hydrogen

An experiment to show this is:

  • Put some metals in seperate testubes (magnesium, aluminium, zinc, iron and copper)
  • Add equal amounts of dilute HCl
  • Light a splint over each testube and judging by the squeaky pop you can recognize the metal

The more reactive a metal is, the faster the reaction will go. So very recative metals will react explosively.  From the Experiment above, the copper metal will not react at all because it is less reactive than hydrogen. The speed of the reaction is calculated by the rate at which the bubbles are given off.

Hydrogen is recognized by the squeaky pop test!

In the equation you can guess the name of a salt by which metal is used and which acid

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Salts

Hydrochloric acid produces Chloride salts. ALWAYS.

Examples of equations:

  • 2HCl + Mg ---------> MgCl2 + H2      ( Magnesium Chloride)
  • 2HCl + Zn -----------> ZnCl2 + H2     ( Zinc Chloride)
  • 6HCl + 2Al ----------> 2AlCl3 + 3H2    ( Aluminium Chloride)

Sulfuric acid produces Sulfate salts. ALWAYS.

Examples of equations:

  • H2SO4 + Mg -------> MgSO4 + H2     ( Magnesium Sulfate)
  • 3H2SO4 + 2Al --------> Al2(SO4)3 + 3H2  ( Aluminium Sulfate)
  • H2SO4 + Zn --------> ZnSO4 + H2  (Zinc Sulfate)

Nitric acid produces nitrate salts when they react with alkali's, but with metals it produces nitrogen oxides instead of nitrates.

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