The diagram shows a strip of metal X placed in colourless silver nitrate solution. After some time, shiny silver crystals grow on the strip and the solution...
Question 1 Report
The diagram shows a strip of metal X placed in colourless silver nitrate solution. After some time, shiny silver crystals grow on the strip and the solution turns pale blue. Which metal is X most likely to be?
Answer Details
The strip is displacing silver, so metal X must be above silver in the reactivity series and must give a coloured solution when its own ions form.
The colour change is the decisive clue. The solution starts colourless and turns pale blue, and blue in aqueous solution means copper(II) ions. So copper atoms are dissolving as \( \text{Cu}^{2+} \) while silver ions are being deposited as shiny crystals:
\[ \text{Cu} + 2\text{AgNO}_3 \rightarrow \text{Cu(NO}_3)_2 + 2\text{Ag} \]
Silver itself cannot be metal X, since a metal cannot displace its own ions and nothing would change. Gold and platinum both sit below silver, so no reaction would occur and the solution would stay colourless. Use the solution colour to name the metal that has dissolved.
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