Question

Complete the following:

(i) Metals: _____________

(ii) Nonmetals: Form acidic oxides

Answer 1

Metals

Metals react with oxygen and the respective oxides. When these metal oxides are dissolved in water they form basic solutions.

For example,

$$\begin{gathered} 2\mathrm{Mg}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)+{\mathrm{O}}_2\left(\mathrm{g}\right)\to 2\mathrm{MgO}\left(\mathrm{s}\right) \\ \mathrm{Magnesium}\mathrm{oxygen}\mathrm{Magnesium}\mathrm{oxide} \end{gathered}$$

$$\begin{gathered} \mathrm{MgO}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)+{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\left(\mathrm{l}\right)\to \mathrm{Mg}{\left(\mathrm{OH}\right)}_2\left(\mathrm{aq}\right) \\ \mathrm{Magnesium}\mathrm{oxide}\mathrm{water}\mathrm{Magnesium}\mathrm{hydroxide} \end{gathered}$$

Non-metals

Non-metals form acidic oxides and when these are dissolved in water then they form acids.

For example,

$$\begin{gathered} \mathrm{C}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)+{\mathrm{O}}_2\left(\mathrm{g}\right)\to {\mathrm{CO}}_2\left(\mathrm{s}\right) \\ \mathrm{Carbon}\mathrm{oxygen}\mathrm{Carbon}\mathrm{dioxide} \end{gathered}$$

$$\begin{gathered} {\mathrm{CO}}_2\left(\mathrm{s}\right)+{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\left(\mathrm{l}\right)\to {\mathrm{H}}_2{\mathrm{CO}}_3\left(\mathrm{aq}\right) \\ \mathrm{Carbon}\mathrm{dioxide}\mathrm{water}\mathrm{carbonic}\mathrm{acid} \end{gathered}$$

Hence,

(i) Metals: Form basic oxides.

(ii) Nonmetals: Form acidic oxides