Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Dept. of Production Engineering and Metallurgical

Branch: Mining and Extractive metallurgy
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Lab Report

Done by:
Noor Ali Ghayeb

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Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
Dept. of Production Engineering and Metallurgical
Branch: Mining and Extractive metallurgy
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Introduction:
In chemistry, displacement reactions occur when a more reactive element
displaces a less reactive element from a solution. Displacement reactions are very
important chemical reactions of chemistry. They are used in many ways in various
fields. For example, we use electroplating to prevent iron objects from rusting which
is based on displacement reaction.

What Happens When Zinc Reacts with Copper Sulphate Solution?

When zinc is introduced to copper sulfate solution, the zinc begins to displace the
copper ions and they start to move away from one another. This process of
displacement is called a redox reaction, which takes place when an oxidizing agent
such as copper loses electrons and a reducing agent such as zinc gains them. As zinc
continues to be released into the solution, it slowly starts to dissolve in the copper
sulfate and eventually forms a new compound with different properties. This new
compound often has a bluish-green color because of the presence of copper, and it
will also have properties like more acidic or basic than its initial components as it
combines with other elements from the reaction.

The Reactivity Series:

The reactivity series is a list of elements arranged according to their reactivity,
with the most reactive elements placed at the top and the least reactive elements at
the bottom. It is important to remember that an element can only displace another
element if it is considered more reactive. In this case, zinc (Zn) is higher up on the
reactivity series than copper (Cu) which means that it has greater reactivity and can
therefore displace copper from CuSO4 solutions.

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Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
Dept. of Production Engineering and Metallurgical
Branch: Mining and Extractive metallurgy
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Ions in Solution:
When zinc displaces copper from CuSO4 solutions, it forms two new compounds
– ZnSO4 and Cu(NO3)2. This happens because ions are formed when metals
dissolve in water. The ions then move around freely until they find other ions they
can bond with. In solutions like copper sulphate (CuSO4), there are both copper (Cu
+2) and sulphate (SO 4 -2) ions present, so these two ions will bond together to form
the compound CuSO4. When zinc is added to this solution, its presence leads to the
formation of two new compounds – ZnSO4 and Cu(NO3)2 – since it has displaced
some of the copper ions from bonding with sulphate ions.

Oxidation-Reduction Reactions:
In addition to displacement reactions, oxidation-reduction reactions also play an
important role in explaining why zinc displaces copper in CuSO4 solutions.
Oxidation-reduction reactions involve the transfer of electrons between two
substances, with one substance gaining electrons while the other loses them. Zinc
atoms have a higher affinity for electrons than copper atoms, meaning they will be
more likely to gain electrons during an oxidation-reduction reaction than their less
reactive counterparts. The result is that zinc will take electrons away from copper
atoms which will then be released into solution and form new compounds such as
ZnSO 4 or Cu (NO 3) 2.

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Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
Dept. of Production Engineering and Metallurgical
Branch: Mining and Extractive metallurgy
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Displacement Reactions of Zinc and Copper Metal:
Chemical Concept Demonstrated: Oxidation/reduction reactions between
metals and metal ions
Demonstration:
 In the first beaker half-filled with 0.1M CuSO4 solution, zinc metal is added.
 In the second beaker half-filled with 0.1M ZnSO4 solution, copper metal is
added.
 Iron metal is immersing in the 0.1M CuSO4 solution.

Observations:

The zinc metal is coated with dark-black elemental copper. The copper metal,
however, has no reaction with the ZnSO4 solution.
The iron metal is coated with red-bronze metallic copper.

Explanations (including important chemical equations):

Zn (s) + CuSO4 (aq) Cu (s) + ZnSO4 (aq)

stronger weaker
reducing stronger oxidizing agent reducing weaker oxidizing agent
agent agent

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Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
Dept. of Production Engineering and Metallurgical
Branch: Mining and Extractive metallurgy
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Cu (s) + ZnSO4 (aq) ---> Zn (s) + CuSO4 (aq)

Fe (s) + CuSO4 (aq) ---> Cu (s) + FeSO4 (aq)

Oxidation occurs when the oxidation number of an atom becomes

larger. Reduction occurs when the oxidation number of an atom becomes smaller.
Oxidizing agents gain electrons while reducing agents lose electrons. Generally,
when metals are fully reduced, they form elemental metal and "plate" the site where
they were reduced.
In the first reaction, the copper ion is able to oxidize the zinc metal. However, in
the second reaction, the zinc ion is not able to oxidize the copper metal. Zinc is a
better reducing agent than copper. Strong reducing agents have weak conjugate
oxidizing agents. Zn2+ is a weak conjugate oxidizing agent compared to
Cu2+. Conversely, strong oxidizing agents have weak conjugate reducing agents.
The second reaction did not occur because the reactants were the weaker reducing
and oxidizing agents. In the third reaction, iron is a better reducing agent than
copper, however iron is not as good as zinc.

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Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
Dept. of Production Engineering and Metallurgical
Branch: Mining and Extractive metallurgy
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Discussion:
1- In the zinc displacement reaction with copper sulphate, zinc is replaced
with copper to produce zinc sulphate?

2- What are the types of displacement reactions?

a) A single-replacement reaction: occurs when a single element is replaced
by another element that is part of a compound.

b) A double-replacement reaction: occurs when two elements or ions of two

different compounds are switch or replaced with each other.

3- What is the extraction method used in this experiment?

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 Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
Dept. of Production Engineering and Metallurgical
Branch: Mining and Extractive metallurgy
_____________________________________________________________________________________

4- What are the types of solvents? What type of solvent is used in this
experiment?
Solvents can be classified into two types:
1- Polar solvent.
2- Non-polar solvent.

Polar Solvent Non - Polar Solvent

A non-polar solvent is composed of
A polar solvent is composed of
molecules that contain bonds between
molecules that contain bonds between
atoms with the same or similar
atoms with different electronegativity.
electronegativity.
The dielectric constant of this type of The dielectric constant of this type of
solvent is high. solvent is low.
Polar solvent has a high dipole moment. Non-polar solvent has a low dipole moment.
This type of solvents can be further
This type of solvents cannot be further
classified into the protic and aprotic
classified.
solvents.
Their static permittivity is high. Their static permittivity is low.
Examples: H O and NH
2 3 Example: CH and Br
4 2

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Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
Dept. of Production Engineering and Metallurgical
Branch: Mining and Extractive metallurgy
_____________________________________________________________________________________

References

https://www.vedantu.com/chemistry/displacement-reaction

https://blog.thepipingmart.com/metals/zinc-displacing-copper-in-cuso4-
solutions/

https://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/demos/main_pages/9.11.html

https://study.com/learn/lesson/single-displacement-reaction-overview-
equation-examples.html

https://www.vedantu.com/chemistry/solvent-examples