Question

State whether the following reaction is possible.

Coating silver over a copper ring by putting the ring in silver nitrate solution.

Answer 1

• According to the reactivity series, the metals that come first are more reactive than the ones that are below them.
• More reactive metals can displace less reactive metals from their compounds.
• In the reactivity series, copper (Cu) lies above silver (Ag). i.e, copper is more reactive than silver.
• When a copper ring is kept inside the silver nitrate solution, copper displaces silver from the solution.
• The solution turns blue and the silver metal accumulates on the ring.
• The reaction is as follows:

$\underset{\mathrm{copper}}{\mathrm{Cu}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Silver}\mathrm{nitrate}}{2{\mathrm{AgNO}}_3\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{Copper}\mathrm{nitrate}}{\mathrm{Cu}{\left({\mathrm{NO}}_3\right)}_2\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{silvetr}}{2\mathrm{Ag}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}$

• Therefore, coating silver over a copper ring by putting the ring in silver nitrate solution is possible.