Question

You musthave seen tarnished copper vessels being cleaned with lemon ortamarind juice. Explain why these sour substances are effective incleaning the vessels.

Answer 1

Copperreacts with moist carbon dioxide in air to form copper carbonate andas a result, copper vessel loses its shiny brown surface forming agreen layer of copper carbonate. The citric acid present in the lemonor tamarind neutralises the basis copper carbonate and dissolves thelayer. That is why, tarnished copper vessels are cleaned with lemonor tamarind juice to give the surface of the copper vessel itscharacteristic lustre.