ZIMSEC O Level Combined Science Notes: Experiment: The reaction of metals with dilute acids

  • Metals also react with dilute acids such as
  • Dilute hydrochloric acid
  • Hydrogen gas is released as a by product of the reaction
  • Metals such as calcium, magnesium and zinc that react with water react even more vigorously with dilute acids
  • Metals that react with the acid dissolve and disappear in the acid
  • They form a salt with the acid
  • The word equation for these is:
  • \text{metal + acid}\rightarrow\text{salt +hydrogen}
  • If the metals react with sulphuric acid the salts are called sulphates
  • If hydrochloric acid reacts with metals to form salts known as chloride
  • For example:
  • \text{sodium+hydrochloric acid} \rightarrow\text{sodium chloride (common salt)+hydrogen}
  • \text{magnesium+hydrochloric acid}\rightarrow\text{magnesium chloride+hydrogen}
  • \text{magnesium+sulphuric acid}\rightarrow\text{magnesium sulphate+hydrogen}
  • Metals with a high affinity for oxygen also tend to react vigorously and sometimes violently with dilute acids

To access more topics go to the Combined Science Notes page.