Chemistry 12
Lab Assignment – Metal/Metal Ion Redox
Reactions ( /55 )
For this laboratory investigation we’ll be using an online activity entitled “Metals In Aqueous
Solutions” which can be found at the following URL: https://teachchemistry.org/classroomresources/metals-in-aqueous-solutions-simulation
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A Quick Introduction to the Online Activity
There are four activities, and you will gather valuable information from each one in order to
complete each section below in this document. If you click on “Activity 1”, for example, you will see
a screen that looks like the one below:
Further instructions are given within the applet itself and in each section of the lab assignment
below. Have fun!
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“The Situation”
You wake up lying on your back in a white, sterile room. Everything is a blur. You’re dazed, trying
to remember what happened to you. Where are you? What is this place? How did you get here?
It’s disturbingly quiet. The only sounds in the air are your breathing and your blood pumping.
Rubbing your eyes, you start to regain focus. The room is large and well-lit, with a single door and
keypad in one corner, and a table and cabinet in the other. The door is locked, as expected. The
keypad is alphabetical, more like a keyboard really.
You cross the room to see what’s in the cabinet. Inside are labeled glass jars filled with metal
strips, labeled glass jars with metal nitrate solutions, hydrochloric acid, a shelf of glass beakers,
and a hand-written note:
“You thought you could outsmart me, Agent 6.022?! I knew you were a mole all along. It’s
all over now! I finally have you in my grasp. Sorry about the cabinet and mess, I didn’t have
time to clean everything up before we captured you. You know, we’re always busy with our
next mischievous plan! No time to dilly-dally…”
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It all comes rushing back to you. You’ve been trapped by the evil Dr. Sneed, whose criminal
organization you’ve been infiltrating for 7 months. But, although the situation looks dire, it’s all part
of the Agency’s plan! You remember what needs to be done next:
“You’ll be locked up in an old chemistry lab in their secret headquarters... The password
for the door will be the first letter of each of the metals in the cabinet when ordered
from weakest to strongest reducing agent. I hope you remember your redox chemistry!
All of Dr. Sneed’s organization is out enacting their next mischievous plan, giving you the
perfect opportunity to steal their most important secrets and finally bring their criminal
organization to an end.”
You look in the cupboard for which metals you’re given. There are 8 of them, and each has a
corresponding metal nitrate solution:
Ag, Cu, Fe, Mg, Ni, Pb, Sn, Zn
Will you be able to escape?
Objective
We will be discovering the reactivity of a variety of metals, and then ordering them in terms of their
decreasing strength as a reducing agent (their willingness to give up electrons) by means of
empirical investigation.
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Activity 1 – Mg, Zn, Cu, Ag (/12)
Data Collection (/4)
Go to Activity 1 in the simulation, pick one of the metals (Mg, Zn, Cu, or Ag) and follow the
instructions to test its interaction with each of the metal nitrate solutions. Record your brief
observations in Table 1 below. Describe any evidence you see for a chemical reaction. Does the
metal strip get a coating? What changes do you see in the solutions, if any?
Repeat this process with each of the metals. Write NR for “no reaction”. Once you’ve filled the
table, add up how many metal ions each metal reacted with in the last column (“Number of
reactions”).
Mg2+
Zn2+
Cu2+
Ag+
Number of
reactions
Mg(s)
Zn(s)
Cu(s)
Ag(s)
Table 1 - Reduction-oxidation reactions between the metals Mg, Zn, Cu, Ag and their corresponding metalnitrate solutions.
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Chemistry 12
Data Analysis
1. Write a balanced chemical equation for each of the chemical reactions you observed: (/4)
2. Using the information in the table above, rank the metal ions and metals in order of
reactivity using Table 2 below. (/2)
Metal Ions
Metals
Most Reactive
Most Reactive
Table 2 - Comparative reactivities of metal ions and metals.
3. Briefly explain why you ordered the metals and metal ions the way you did. (/2)
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Activity 2 – Fe, Pb, Ni, Sn (/12)
Data Collection (/4)
Repeat the above procedure in Activity 2, recording your observations in Table 3.
Fe2+
Pb2+
Ni2+
Sn2+
Number of
reactions
Fe
Sn
Pb
Ni
Table 3 - Reduction-oxidation reactions between the metals Fe, Pb, Ni, Sn and their corresponding metal-nitrate
solutions.
Data Analysis
1. Write a balanced chemical equation for each of the chemical reactions you observed: (/4)
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2. Using the information in the table above, rank the metal ions and metals in order of
reactivity using Table 4 below. (/2)
Metal Ions
Metals
Most Reactive
Most Reactive
Table 4 - Comparative reactivities of metal ions and metals.
3. Once again, briefly explain why you ordered the metals and metal ions the way you did. If
it’s the same reasoning as before, you can simply state “See Above”. (/1)
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Activity 3 – Zn, Cu, Fe, Pb (/12)
Data Collection (/4)
Click on “Back to Home” and then open Activity 3. Repeat the above procedure, recording your
observations in Table 5.
Zn2+
Cu2+
Fe2+
Pb2+
Number of
reactions
Fe
Zn
Cu
Pb
Table 5 - Reduction-oxidation reactions between the metals Fe, Cu, Zn, Pb and their corresponding metal-nitrate
solutions.
Data Analysis
1. Write a balanced chemical equation for each of the chemical reactions you observed: (/4)
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2. Using the information in the table above, rank the metal ions and metals in order of
reactivity using Table 6 below. (/2)
Metal Ions
Metals
Most Reactive
Most Reactive
Table 6 - Comparative reactivities of metal ions and metals.
3. Once again, briefly explain why you ordered the metals and metal ions the way you did. If
it’s the same reasoning as before, you can simply state “See Above”. (/1)
Activity 4 – Reaction of Metals in Acid (/6)
Recall that one of the key characteristics of acids is that they react with “active metals” to produce
hydrogen gas. The H+ ions receive electrons from strong reducing agents to form H2(g) according
to the following half-reaction:
2H+ + 2e– → H2(g)
For Activity 4, you will immerse the strips of metal in the beaker of HCl(aq) and observe any
reactions. Mark down your observations in Table 4, including the vigorousness of the reaction (if
there is a reaction at all).
Type of Metal
Observations
Sn
Cu
Zn
Pb
Ni
Fe
Table 7 - Observations for metals reacting in acid.
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Determining the Activity Series (/8)
From your data in Tables 2, 4, 6, and 7, you can determine the relative reactivity of all 8 metals.
Don’t be afraid to use scrap paper.
Write the metals in Table 8 below in order from least reactive to most reactive (or, weakest
reducing agent to strongest reducing agent). (/4)
from least reactive to most reactive
Table 8 - Empirically determined activity series of metals, from least active to most active.
Describe the method you used to determine the order from your data. Which was the most reactive
metal from each Activity, and how did you use that information to arrive at your reactivity order
above? (/4)
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“The Escape?” (/2)
You, Agent 6.022, are standing in front of the door. The keypad is lit. Type in the 8-letter code
below:
Will the code work? Will you escape? You’ll have to wait for the lab to be marked to find out the
end of the story!
Conclusion (/5)
Write a conclusion to this investigation (ignoring the whole agent story). Summarize your results,
describing the experimental method that was used to arrive at them. Compare your results with
that of the Table of Standard Reduction Potentials of Half-Cells. Are your results consistent?
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