Photo AI
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 b... 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 with carbon because iron is lower in reactivity compared to carbon, which allows the carbon to reduce iron oxide to iron. In contrast, aluminium is more reactive than carbon, requiring electrolysis to effectively remove oxygen from aluminium oxide and extract aluminium.