Activity Series of Metals

Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to determine the relative activity of Cu, Zn, Al, Mg, Sn, Pb, Ca, H, and Fe.

Instructions

1. You will be provided with 6M HCl (6 molar hydrochloric acid). This is a very powerful acid and it is very destructive to human tissue especially your eyes. GOGGLES MUST BE WORE AT ALL TIMES!!! BE CAREFUL!

2. Use what you have learned from previous labs for greater success on this lab.

3. You may request additional materials at your discretion if you have time.

Procedure

1. Label 8 test tubes with one of the 8 metals given (a different metal for each test tube).

2. Place a sample of each metal in its designated test tube.

3. One test tube at a time, carefully pour 6.0 M HCl into each of the labeled test tubes until each tube is about 1/3 full.

4. Carefully observe the rate at which each metal reacts with the acid to determine the relative activity of hydrogen and the 8 metals.

Hint: Don’t be too quick to judge the relative activity of a metal. (Why not?)

Analysis & Conclusions

1. Your conclusion should state the relative activity of hydrogen and the 8 metals indicated above from most active to least active.
2. You do not have to write a formal lab report for this. Just show the order of metallic activity for the eight elements shown above (most active to least active) and write a balanced, net ionic equation for each metal that produced a reaction with the hydrochloric acid. If more than one reaction is possible for a given metal, show both reactions.