Activity Series
•The ability of an element to react is the element’s
activity.
•The more readily an element reacts with other
substances, the greater its activity is.
•An activity series is a list
of elements organized
according to the ease with
which the elements
undergo certain chemical
reactions.
•For metals, greater activity means greater ease of
loss of electrons, to form positive ions.
•For nonmetals, greater activity means greater ease
of gain of electrons, to form negative ions.
•The order in which the elements are listed is usually
determined by single-displacement reactions.
2Al (s) + 3Pb(NO3)2 (aq) → 3Pb (s) + 2Al(NO3)3 (aq)
Single-displacement – one elements replaces a
similar element in a compound.
•The most-active element is
placed at the top in the
series.
•It can replace each of the
elements below it from a
compound in a singledisplacement reaction.
•An element farther down can replace any element
below it but not any above it.
Li can replace any
element below it.
Rb can replace any
element below it but
cannot replace Li.
•Activity series are used to predict whether certain
chemical reactions will occur.
•Activity series are based on experimentation.
Examples:
According to the activity series for metals, aluminum
replaces zinc. The following reaction does occur.
2Al (s) + 3ZnCl2 (aq) →
3Zn (s) + 2AlCl3 (aq)
Aluminum is higher on series
than zinc.
Cobalt cannot replace
sodium. Therefore,
Co (s) + 2NaCl (aq) →
no reaction
Problems:
Using the activity series, predict whether each of
the possible reactions listed below will occur.
For the reactions that occur, predict the products.
50
Zn (s) + H2O (l) → no reaction
Sn (s) + O2 (g) → SnO2
Cd (s) + Pb(NO3)2 (aq) → Pb (s) + Cd(NO3)2 (aq)
Cu(s) + HCl (aq)→ no reaction
Cr(s) + H2O(l) → no reaction
Pt(s) + O2(g) → no reaction
Cd(s) + 2HBr(aq) → CdBr2(aq) + H2(g)
Mg (s) + steam → Mg(OH)2(aq) + H2(g)
o
Br2(l) + KI(aq) → 2KBr(aq) + I2(s)
Mg(s) + Co(NO3)2 (aq) → Mg(NO3)2(aq) + Co(s)
Au(s) + HCl(aq) → no reaction
Cu(s) + FeSO4(aq) → no reaction