metal oxides and redox

What is oxidation and reduction and give symbol balanced equation for the two using magnesium

Oxidation-the process of gaining oxygen

Reduction - the loss of oxygen

Oxidised - 2Mg + O2 —> 2MgO

Reduced - 2MgO —> 2Mg + O2

What happens to reactive metals in response to oxygen

As most metals are reactive when they are exposed to oxygen, they will oxidise into a metal oxide

Write symbol equation of iron being oxidised

2Fe + O2 —> Fe2O3

Because oxygen is abundant what does that mean for metals and what are the exceptions

Oxygen is abundant so most metals will come in contact with it if left long enough metals will oxidise. The exceptions are unreactive metals (Pure) too unreactive to react to oxygen.

How can you reduce metal oxides to get pure metals

(What is the cheapest and easiest way)

The cheapest and easiest way is to react metal oxides with carbon. The carbon will take the oxygen from the metal to form carbon dioxide and leave behind the pure metal.

What is the only problem for using carbon to reduce metal oxides

You can’t use carbon to reduce all metal oxides. Only metals that are less reactive than carbon can be reduced.

How can you reduce more reactive metal oxides than carbon

For more reactive metals than carbon electricity is needed to be used. Electrolysis requires a lot of energy, so it’s very expensive.

Describe the extraction of metals from ores

Unreactive metals like gold are found in the Earth as the metal itself rather than as a compound. The other metals we get by extracting them from metals which are mined from the ground. A metal ore is a rock which contains enough metal to make it profitable to extract the metal from it in many cases the ore is an oxide of the metal.

Give symbol balanced equation for the reduction of iron oxide using carbon

2Fe2O3 + 3C —> 4Fe + 3CO2