Metals & Alloys

Metals & Alloys

1. Copper can be extracted from it's ore by heating it with carbon.

2. Impure copper is purified by electrolysis in which the anode is impure copper

   • the cathode is pure copper and the electrolyte is copper sulphate solution.

3. An alloy is a mixtue of two elements, one of which is metal. Alloys often have more useful properties than the metals they contain.

4. Extraction & Purification of copper

   • Copper is less reactive than carbon, so it can be extracted from ores by heating it with carbon.
   • Copper(II) oxide + Carbon ---> Copper + Carbon dioxide
     • 2CuO + C ---> 2Cu + CO²

5. Electrolysis

   • Copper is purified by electrolysis.
     • Electricity is passed through solutions containing copper compounds, such as copper sulphate .

6. Problems

   • The world is running out of ores that are rich in copper.
   • Recycling copper is cheaper, and uses less energy and resources than extracting fresh copper from its ore.

7. Alloys

   • Alloys contain atoms of different sizes, which distorts the regular arrangements of atoms.
     • This makes it more difficult for layers to slide over each other, so they're harder than the pure metals they contain.

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