The diagram shows a metal displacement experiment: a coil of copper wire is lowered into silver nitrate solution and left overnight. Which observation would...
Question 1 Report
The diagram shows a metal displacement experiment: a coil of copper wire is lowered into silver nitrate solution and left overnight. Which observation would be seen?
Answer Details
Copper is above silver in the reactivity series, so copper atoms give up electrons more readily than silver atoms do. Placed in silver nitrate solution, copper is oxidised and silver ions are reduced:
\[ \text{Cu} + 2\text{AgNO}_3 \rightarrow \text{Cu(NO}_3)_2 + 2\text{Ag} \]
The wire therefore dissolves while needle-like grey crystals of silver grow on it, and the solution slowly turns blue as \( \text{Cu}^{2+} \) ions build up.
The reverse process, silver dissolving and copper depositing, would need silver to be the more reactive metal, which it is not. "Nothing changes" would only be right if copper were below silver. No brown gas forms because nitrogen dioxide requires concentrated nitric acid, not a nitrate solution.
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