Question

How are the moderately reactive metals extracted from their oxides?

Answer 1

In the activity series of metals, metals are arranged in a column in order of decreasing reactivity. The moderately reactive metals are placed in the middle of the reactivity series.

The moderately reactive metals are extracted from their oxides by reduction with Carbon (commonly used), Aluminium, Sodium or Calcium at a high temperature. For example:

$$\begin{gathered} \mathrm{MO}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)+\mathrm{C}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)\stackrel{\mathrm{Heat},\mathrm{high}\mathrm{Temp}}{\to }\mathrm{M}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)+\mathrm{CO}\left(\mathrm{g}\right) \\ \mathrm{Metal} \\ \mathrm{oxide} \end{gathered}$$