Question

What are activity series.????

Answer 1

The reactivity series is a series of metals, in order of reactivity from highest to lowest. It is used to determine the products of single displacement reactions, whereby metal A will replace another metal B in a solution if A is higher in the series. Activity series of some of the more common metals, listed in descending order of reactivity.

Metals Metal Ion Reactivity

K	K+	reacts with water
Na	Na+
Li	Li+
Ba	Ba2+
Sr	Sr2+
Ca	Ca2+
Mg	Mg2+	reacts with acids
Al	Al3+
Mn	Mn2+
Zn	Zn2+
Cr	Cr2+
Fe	Fe2+
Cd	Cd2+
Co	Co2+
Ni	Ni2+
Sn	Sn2+
Pb	Pb2+
H2	H+	included for comparison
Sb	Sb2+	highly unreactive
Bi	Bi2+
Cu	Cu2+
Hg	Hg2+
Ag	Ag+
Au	Au3+
Pt	Pt+

When a metal in elemental form is placed in a solution of another metal salt it may be more energetically feasible for this "elemental metal" to exist as an ion and the "ionic metal" to exist as the element. Therefore the elemental metal will "displace" the ionic metal and the two swap places.

Only a metal higher in the reactivity series will displace another.

A metal can displace metal ions listed below it in the activity series, but not above. For example, zinc is more active than copper and is able to displace copper ions from solution