Extracting Metals and Equilibria | Edexcel GCSE Chemistry, Higher tier (1CH0)

Extracting Metals and Equilibria

128 questions
11 subtopics
Paper 1
Paper 1

Extracting Metals and Equilibria is examined in Paper 1, Chemistry 1.

It covers investigating the reactivity of metals, displacement reactions as redox reactions, the reactivity series, ores, oxidation and reduction, choosing a method to extract a metal, biological methods of metal extraction, corrosion resistance and recycling metals, life cycle assessment, reversible reactions and dynamic equilibrium, the Haber process and its conditions and changing the position of an equilibrium.

Sample questions from Extracting Metals and Equilibria

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

Investigating the reactivity of metals

What is seen when magnesium is added to cold water, and what does this show about its reactivity?

Show the answer
Only a few bubbles appear very slowly, showing magnesium is less reactive than sodium or calcium.
Displacement reactions as redox reactions

Write the half equation for the change undergone by magnesium atoms when magnesium displaces copper from copper(II) sulfate solution.

Show the answer
Mg → Mg²⁺ + 2e⁻.
The reactivity series

Which metals of the reactivity series react with dilute acids but show almost no reaction with cold water?

Show the answer
Magnesium, aluminium, zinc and iron react with dilute acids but barely react with cold water.
Ores, oxidation and reduction

Why is aluminium never found in the Earth’s crust as the uncombined element?

Show the answer
Aluminium is reactive, so it is always found joined to other elements in compounds.
Choosing a method to extract a metal

Why can aluminium not be extracted by heating its oxide with carbon?

Show the answer
Aluminium is more reactive than carbon, so carbon cannot take the oxygen away from aluminium oxide.
Biological methods of metal extraction

What is phytoextraction?

Show the answer
Phytoextraction uses plants grown on low-grade ore or contaminated land to absorb metal compounds through their roots.
Corrosion resistance and recycling metals

Why does aluminium resist corrosion even though it is high in the reactivity series?

Show the answer
The oxide layer that forms on aluminium clings firmly to the surface and stops oxygen reaching the metal underneath.
Life cycle assessment

What is considered at the disposal stage of a life-cycle assessment?

Show the answer
Whether the product can be reused or recycled, and the pollution caused if it is sent to landfill or burned.

The 11 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Investigating the reactivity of metals	Judging reactivity from reactions with cold water and dilute acid, the products formed, magnesium in copper(II) sulfate, and ordering magnesium, zinc and copper by displacement.	8
Displacement reactions as redox reactions	Oxidation and reduction as loss and gain of electrons, the half equations when magnesium displaces copper, why displacement is redox, and why the sulfate ions take no part.	8
The reactivity series	The series from potassium to gold with carbon and hydrogen placed in it, which metals react with cold water or dilute acid, why copper gives no hydrogen, and aluminium's oxide layer.	9
Ores, oxidation and reduction	What an ore is and why most metals are found as compounds while gold is found uncombined, oxidation and reduction as the gain and loss of oxygen, identifying what is oxidised and reduced, and why extracting a metal from its oxide is reduction, usually by carbon.	17
Choosing a method to extract a metal	How position relative to carbon decides between heating with carbon and electrolysis, why aluminium needs electrolysis and why it costs more, the iron extraction equation, and why gold is found uncombined.	8
Biological methods of metal extraction	What bioleaching and phytoextraction are, how the metal is recovered from each, their advantages over mining, their lower carbon dioxide output, and why they are slow.	8
Corrosion resistance and recycling metals	What corrosion is and how it follows the reactivity series, why gold, sodium and aluminium behave as they do, why rust keeps spreading, and the economic and environmental case for recycling.	14
Life cycle assessment	What a life-cycle assessment is, its four stages and the impacts counted at each, comparing two bags by energy, why the results involve judgement and can be selectively reported, and ethical issues and the questions science cannot answer.	19
Reversible reactions and dynamic equilibrium	Reversible reactions and the ⇌ symbol, hydrated copper(II) sulfate and ammonium chloride as examples, dynamic equilibrium in a closed system, why the amounts stay constant but are not equal, and what the position of an equilibrium means.	13
The Haber process and its conditions	The word and symbol equations for ammonia, where the nitrogen and hydrogen come from, the 450 °C, 200 atmospheres and iron catalyst, and why the reaction never goes to completion.	12
Changing the position of an equilibrium	How temperature, pressure, reactant concentration and removing a product shift an equilibrium, applied to N₂ + 3H₂ ⇌ 2NH₃, why 450 °C and 200 atmospheres are compromises, and what a catalyst does not change.	12

Extracting Metals and Equilibria is 128 of the 1,857 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £7

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.