Sabbatical (Term 2 Science Eureka)

I opted for the Science Eureka sabbatical last term and the course was divided into Physics and Chemistry. I had done some experiments and these are the ones which are felt that are more important.


No.1
There are many different types of metals in the world. However, not all of them react in the same way.For example, bare iron (iron without any layering such as paint) rusts over some time into a disgusting brown colour. However, on the other hand, tin can stay shiny for a really long time. This is the fact because different metals have different reactivity. In the experiment that I had done, the experiment will be used to rank the metals order of reactivity.

Materials used:
Zinc Foils
Magnesium Ribbons
Iron Fillings
Copper Foils
Zinc Nitrate Solution
Copper(II)Sulfate
Magnesium Sulfate Solution
Iron (III)Sulfate Solution
Deionised water
3 test tubes
Sticky labels



Procedures
1.Fill the 3 different test-tubes with roughly 5cm cube of zinc nitrate solution
2.Add magnesium ribbon into one of the test-tubes and stir the mixture
3.Repeat step 3 with the other metals except zinc
4.Wash the 3 test-tubes thoroughly with tap water and then deionised water.
5.Repeat steps 1-5 with the remaining solutions of metal into its corresponding solution (ex. do not put copper into copper(II)nitrate)


After finishing the experiment, the results is as below.
The reactivity of the metals is( from lowest to the highest)
Copper, Iron, Zinc, Magnesium




Extra information


The reactivity series is very useful in our daily applications as it can be used in determining the method of the extraction of metals. For metals which of low reactivity (gold) they can be extracted on its own.