Extraction of metals

• The majority of metals are too reactive to exist on their own in the Earth’s crust, and they occur
naturally in rocks as compounds in ores.
• These ores are usually carbonates, oxides or sulfides of the metal, mixed with impurities.
• Some metals, such as gold and silver, occur in a native form as the free metal. They are very
unreactive and have withstood the action of water and the atmosphere for many thousands of
years without reacting to become compounds.
• Some of the common ores are shown in the table below;

• Because reactive metals, such as sodium, hold on to the element(s) they have combined with,
they are usually difficult to extract. For example, sodium chloride (as rock salt) is an ionic
compound with the Na+ and Cl− ions strongly bonded to one another. The separation of these
ions and the subsequent isolation of the sodium metal is therefore difficult.
• Electrolysis of the molten, purified ore is the method used in these cases. During this process,
the metal is produced at the cathode while a non-metal is produced at the anode. As you might
expect, extraction of metal by electrolysis is expensive. In order to keep costs low, many metal
smelters using electrolysis are situated in regions where there is hydroelectric power.
Extraction of iron
• Iron is extracted mainly from its oxides, hematite (Fe2O3) and magnetite (Fe3O4), in a blast
furnace. These ores contain at least 60% iron. The blast furnace is a steel tower, approximately
50 m high, lined with heat-resistant bricks. It is loaded with the ‘charge’ of iron ore (usually
hematite), carbon in the form of coke (made by heating coal) and limestone (calcium carbonate).
1. A blast of hot air is sent in near the bottom of the furnace through holes which makes the
‘charge’ glow, as the coke burns in the preheated air.
carbon + oxygen → carbon dioxide
(Write the balanced chemical equation)
2. A number of chemical reactions then follow.
The limestone begins to decompose:
calcium carbonate → calcium oxide + carbon dioxide
 (Write balanced chemical equation)
3. The carbon dioxide gas produced reacts with more hot coke higher up in the furnace,
producing carbon monoxide in an endothermic reaction.
carbon dioxide + coke → carbon monoxide
(write balanced chemical equation)
4. » Carbon monoxide is a reducing agent (Chapter 3, p. 37). It rises up the furnace and reduces
the iron(III) oxide ore. This takes place at a temperature of around 700°C:
iron(III) + carbon monoxide → iron + carbon dioxide oxide
The molten iron trickles to the bottom.
Calcium oxide is a base and this reacts with acidic impurities such as silicon(IV) oxide in the
iron, to form a slag which is mainly calcium silicate.
calcium oxide + silicon(IV) oxide → calcium silicate
(Write balanced chemical equation)
5. The slag trickles to the bottom of the furnace, but because it is less dense than the molten
iron, it floats on top of it.
6. The molten iron, as well as the molten slag, may be tapped off (run off) at regular intervals.
7. The waste gases, mainly nitrogen and oxides of carbon, escape from the top of the furnace.
They are used in a heat exchange process to heat incoming air and so help to reduce the
energy costs of the process. Slag is the other waste material. It is used by builders and road
makers for foundations.

Alloys

• Alloys are mixtures of a metal with other elements or other metals.

• It is generally found that alloying produces a metallic substance that has more useful properties
than the original pure metal it was made from.
• For instance, the alloy brass is made from copper and zinc. The alloy is harder and more
corrosion resistant than either of the metals it is made from.
• Steel is a mixture of the metal iron and the non-metal carbon. Of all the alloys we use, steel is
perhaps the most important.
• For example, nickel and chromium are the added metals when stainless steel is produced. The
chromium prevents the steel from rusting while the nickel makes it harder.
• By mixing together metals which have different sized atoms to form the alloy, the metal no
longer has a repeating structure. A metal is malleable and ductile because its layers are able to
move over one another. In an alloy, the different sized atoms mean that the layers can no longer
slide over each other, causing the alloy to have less malleability and ductility.
 Metal corrosion
• Rust is an orange–red powder consisting mainly of hydrated iron(III) oxide (Fe2O3.xH2O).
• Both water and oxygen are essential for iron to rust, and if one of these two substances is not
present then rusting will not take place.
• The rusting of iron is encouraged by salt.
Experiment
Aim: To show that water and air are needed for rusting to occur.
Method
1. Place iron nails in test tubes having different conditions as shown below;

Observations
• The nails in test tube 1 and 4 rust because there is water and oxygen present.
• The nails in testbute 2 do not rust because their is neither oxygen nor
moisture(water)
• The nails in test tube 3 do not rust because their is water but no oxygen.

Rust prevention

1. Painting
Ships, lorries, cars, bridges and many other iron and steel structures are painted to prevent
rusting . However, if the paint is scratched, the iron beneath it will start to rust (Figure 10.19) and
corrosion can then spread under the paintwork which is still sound. This is why it is essential that
the paint is regularly maintained.
 2. Oiling/greasing
The iron and steel in the moving parts of machinery are coated with oil to prevent them from
coming into contact with air or moisture. This is the most common way of protecting moving
parts of machinery, but the protective film must be renewed.

3. Coating with plastic

The exteriors of refrigerators, freezers and many other items are coated with plastic, such as
PVC, to prevent the steel structure rusting .
4. Galvanising
• This involves dipping the object into molten zinc. The thin layer of the more reactive
zinc metal coating the steel object slowly corrodes and loses electrons to the iron,
thereby protecting it.
• This process continues even when much of the layer of zinc has been scratched away,
so the iron continues to be protected.
• Sacrificial pprotections when a more reactive metal is sacrificed so that it corrodes
instead of a less reactive one. For instance, Zinc is above iron in the reactivity series and
will react in preference to it and so is corroded. It forms positive ions more easily than
the iron.
(Redox reaction of zinc with iron)
As long as some of the zinc bars remain in contact with the iron structure, the structure
will be protected from rusting.
When the zinc runs out, it must be renewed. Gas and water pipes made of iron and
steel are connected by a wire to blocks of magnesium to obtain the same result. In both
cases, as the more reactive metal corrodes, it loses electrons to the iron and so protects
it .

Corrosion

• Rusting is the most common form of corrosion but this term is confined to iron and steel.
• Corrosion is the general name given to the process which takes place when metals and alloys
are chemically attacked by oxygen, water or any other substances found in their immediate
environment. The metals in the reactivity series will corrode to a greater or lesser extent.
Generally, the higher the metal is in the reactivity series, the more rapidly it will corrode.
• If sodium and potassium were not stored under oil, they would corrode very rapidly indeed.
Magnesium, calcium and aluminium are usually covered by a thin coating of oxide after initial
reaction with oxygen in the air.
• Freshly produced copper is pink in colour . However, on exposure to air, it soon turns brown due
to the formation of copper(II) oxide on the surface of the metal.
• Gold and platinum are unreactive and do not corrode, even after thousands of years.