Question

Carbon cannot reduce the oxides of sodium, magnesium and aluminium to their respective metals. why? Where are these metals placed in the reactivity series? How are these metals obtained from their ores? Take an example to explain the process of extraction along with chemical equations.

Answer 1

• This is because sodium and magnesium are more reactive than carbon.
• This means that carbon cannot reduce the oxides of these metals.
• The two metals are above carbon in the reactivity series and thus have a high affinity to oxygen than carbon does and thus cannot be reduced by it.
• These metals are less reactive than the neighbouring alkali metal.
• Magnesium is less active than sodium; calcium is less active than potassium; and so on.
• These metals become more active as we go down the column.
• Magnesium is more active than beryllium; calcium is more active than magnesium; and so on.
• Metals of high reactivity; such as sodium, calcium, magnesium, aluminium, etc. are extracted from their ores by electrolytic reduction.
• These metals cannot be reduced using carbon because carbon is less reactive than them.