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Iron is extracted by the reduction of iron oxide - Edexcel - GCSE Chemistry - Question 5 - 2012 - Paper 1
Question 5
Iron is extracted by the reduction of iron oxide. In the extraction process, iron oxide is reduced by heating it with carbon. (i) The extraction process involves bo... show full transcript
Worked Solution & Example Answer:Iron is extracted by the reduction of iron oxide - Edexcel - GCSE Chemistry - Question 5 - 2012 - Paper 1
Step 1
Step 2
(ii) Explain why iron can be extracted from iron oxide by heating it with carbon but electrolysis has to be used to extract aluminium from its oxide.
Answer
Iron can be extracted from iron oxide by heating it with carbon because iron is lower in reactivity than carbon, which allows carbon to reduce iron oxide to iron. On the other hand, aluminium is more reactive than carbon; therefore, electrolysis is required to remove oxygen from aluminium oxide to extract aluminium.