Austin Clyde

Lab Partner: Kelly Morency

Date Performed: 11 November 2013
Creating an Activity Series
Introduction:
The purpose of this lab is to construct an activity series for copper, hydrogen, iron,
magnesium, tin, zinc, and an unknown element, x, which we later found out was aluminum. An
activity series is a list of metals in order of decreasing ease of oxidation. We will be using a
series of redox reactions to test each metals ease of oxidations. A redox reaction is merely any
reaction where the oxidation states of the atoms are changed. A change in the oxidation state is
from a gain or loss of elections. Specifically, oxidation involves the loss of electrons and
reduction involves the gain of electrons. The particular reactions we will be examining are
double replacement reactions. We can use the occurrence of any reaction to tell us the relative
reactivity of a metal. For example, a metal and metal salt reaction of form X + YA Y + XA
where X and Y are metals and A is an anion. In the reaction X is reduced from a cation to a
stable element while Y is oxidized. Because the reaction occurs, X is more easily oxidized than
Y. Another example, a metal with an acid can be represented by M + 2HA H
2
+ MA
2
. While
hydrogen is not a metal, it behaves like one in terms of it being oxidized and reduced. In this
case, if the reaction occurred, metal M would be more easily oxidized than hydrogen. We will
create this activity series by analyzing the reactions of the metals with metal salts and acid.
Materials and Methods:
Make a result table by placing all the metals top of the rows and the salts on the column.
Except cross off all overlapwhere the metal and the cation are the same. Fill the well plate
with all the metals. Then add the first salt/acid to all six plates. Repeat until all the salts have
been reacted with all the metals making sure to thoroughly wash the well plate after each six
reactions.





Results:
Activity Series: Mg, Zn, Al, Fe, Sn, H, Cu
X marks reaction Cu Fe Mg Sn Zn Al HCl
HCl X X X X X
Cu(NO
3
)
2
X X X X X
Fe(NO
3
)
2
X X
Mg(NO
3
)
2

SnCl
4
X X X X
Zn(NO
3
)
2
X
AlCl
3
X X
Reactions:
Molecular: Fe + 2HCl FeCl
2
+ H
2

Net Ionic: Fe + 2H
+
Fe
+2
+ H
2

Molecular: Fe + Cu(NO
3
)
2
Cu +Fe(NO
3
)
2

Net Ionic: Fe + Cu
+2
Cu + Fe
+2

Molecular: 4Fe + 3SnCl
4
3Sn + 4FeCl
3

Net Ionic: 4Fe
+
+ 3Sn
+4
3Sn + 4Fe
+
Molecular: Mg + 2HCl H
2
+ MgCl
2

Net Ionic: Mg + 2H
+
H
2
+ Mg
+2
Molecular: Mg+Cu(NO
3
)

Cu + Mg(NO
3
)
2

Net Ionic: Mg + Cu
+2
Cu + Mg
2+
Molecular: Mg +Fe(NO
3
)
2
Fe + Mg(NO
3
)
2

Net Ionic: Mg + Fe
+2
Fe + Mg
+2
Molecular: 2Mg + SnCl
4
Sn + 2MgCl
2

Net Ionic: 2Mg + Sn
+4
Sn + Mg
2+
Molecular:Mg+Zn(NO
3
)
2
Zn + Mg(NO
3
)
2

Net Ionic: Mg + Zn
+2
Zn + Mg
+2
Molecular: 3Mg + 2AlCl
3
2Al + 3MgCl
2
Net Ionic: 3Mg + 2Al
+3
2Al + 3Mg
+2


Molecular: Sn + 2HCl H
2
+ SnCl
2

Net Ionic: Sn + 2H
+
H
2
+ Sn
+2
Molecular: Sn + Cu(NO
3
)
2
Cu + Sn(NO
3
)
2

Net Ionic: Sn + Cu
+2
Cu + Sn
+2
Molecular: Zn + HCl H
2
+ ZnCl
2

Net Ionic: Zn + 2H
+
H
2
+ Zn
2+
Molecular: Zn + Cu(NO
3
)
2
Cu + Zn(NO
3
)
2

Net Ionic: Zn + Cu
+2
Cu + Zn
2+

Molecular: Zn +Fe(NO
3
)
2
Fe + Zn(NO
3
)
2

Net Ionic: Zn + Fe
+2
Fe + Zn
+2
Molecular: 2Zn + SnCl
4
Sn + 2ZnCl
2

Net Ionic: 2Zn + Sn
+4
Sn + Zn
2+
Molecular: 3Zn + 2AlCl
3
2Al + 3ZnCl
2
Net Ionic: 3Zn + 2Al
+3
2Al + 3Zn
+2
Molecular: 2Al + 6HCl 3H
2
+ 2AlCl
3

Net Ionic: 2Al + 6H
+
3H
2
+ 2Al
+3
Molecular: 4Al + 3SnCl
4
3Sn +4AlCl
3
Net Ionic: 4Al + 3Sn
+
3Sn + $Al
+3
Molecular: 2HCl + Cu(NO
3
)
2
CuCl
2
+2HNO
3

Net Ionic: 2Cl
-
+ Cu
+2
CuCl
2

Analysis:
Because cooper had not reactions at all we placed it last in our series. Almost all the other
metals have a reaction with the cooper salt showing that all the other metals should be ranked
higher because a reaction indicates that the other metals are more easily oxidized. Being oxidized
more easily means it is more reactive. This makes sense since it is called a jewelry metal and
jewelry metals are not very reactive because of their full 3d sublevel.
Since using hydrogen in its diatomic form is not feasible in a high school lab, we used
hydrochloric acid since it is a strong acid and dissociates in solution meaning it would work to
test the reactivity of a hydrogen ion. Because it only reacted with the copper nitrate, this means
hydrogen is only more reactive than copper therefore securing its place as second most reactive.
Tin is the third most reactive because reacted with the acid proving it is more reactive
than hydrogen and it also reacted with copper. However, aluminum reacted with two metals as
well. We decided aluminum was more reactive since it reacted with tin. This means aluminum
should have reacted with copper. So this places tin third.
Going off the assumption that Al should have reacted with Copper because it reacted with
hydrogen and tin, both easier to oxidize than copper, Al has three reactions just like Fe. They
both have the same exact data in this experiment, so the only way to place is based on their
ionization energies. An element that has lower ionization energy will be more easily oxidized,
lose electrons, therefore be more reactive. Al has a first ionization energy of 577.5 kJ mol
-1
and
Fe is 762.5 kJ mol
-1
. Consequently, Al would be more reactive than iron thus securing third for
most reactive, and fourth for iron. With this conclusion, a reaction between iron and aluminum
chloride should have occurred because single replacement reactions occur when the elemental
metal is more reactive than the one in the compound.
Zinc had five reactions with copper, hydrogen, tin, iron, and aluminum. Because it
replaced all of those ions in a salt that proves it is more easily oxidized, therefore more easily
reduced. The most reactive of the series is Mg since it reacted with all the compounds. Since Mg
has only 2 valence electrons, to get an octet it has to lose two electrons. Because it is very close
to an octet, it will be the most reactive so it could lose those electrons and get the octet.
The real activity series is as follows: Mg, Al, Zn, Fe, Sn, H, Cu. This means that Al
should have reacted with copper (II) nitrate, zinc nitrate and iron (II) nitrate because it is more
reactive than the cations. This also means, that Zn should have not reacted with AlCl
3
because
Zn should have been less reactive than Al and therefore not replace that ion which leads to a
source of error. This may have been caused by lack of scrubbing. When we were rushing to
complete the lab in time, we may have just rinsed the area with distilled water therefore leaving
excess chemicals in the well. This would have led to a reaction between Zn and AlCl
3
that should
not have occurred. Because of this error, we put Zn above Al which is false.
Another source of error could be not observing slower reactions well enough. For
example, we did not see a reaction between Al and copper nitrate which we know would occur.
This could also have affected other results such as not observing Als reaction with Zn which
again changed its location on the table.
Comparing data with the group of Patel and Weber, whose series was Mg, Zn, Fe, H, Al,
Sn, and Cu, the differences are substantial. While we both maintain Mg is the most, Zn is the
second and Cu is the least reactive, our differences in the middle between Fe, H, Al, and Sn,
must be explained by different observations.
For future experimentation, we would recommend waiting a longer period of time to see
if reactions occur. Also, it would be best to place a white sheet of paper underneath the well plate
to better see any color changes that occur. Finally, make sure the well plate is thoroughly cleaned
before and after each experiment.
Conclusion:
In this lab, we created an activity series using the metals Cu, H, Fe, Mg, Sn, Zn, and Al.
We created this series by reacting the metals in many different ways to order them from most to
least reactive: Mg, Zn, Al, Fe, Sn, H, Cu. Sources of error we encountered ranged from not
cleaning the well plate good enough cross contaminating the wells to not observing carefully
enough to see if a reaction happened.