Question

What would you observe in the following case:

When Carbon monoxide is passed over heated Copper oxide.

Answer 1

Reaction between copper oxide and carbon monoxide:

• When Carbon monoxide$\left(\mathrm{CO}\right)$ is passed over heated Copper oxide ($\mathrm{CuO}$), it gives carbon dioxide gas (${\mathrm{CO}}_2$) and copper metal $\left(\mathrm{Cu}\right)$ as a product.
• Carbon monoxide acts as a reducing agent which reduced the copper oxide to copper metal.
• This reaction is used for the extraction of copper from copper oxide.

Balanced chemical equation :

$\underset{\mathrm{Copper}\mathrm{oxide}}{\mathrm{CuO}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Carbon}\mathrm{monoxide}}{\mathrm{CO}\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{Copper}}{\mathrm{Cu}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Carbon}\mathrm{dioxide}}{{\mathrm{CO}}_2\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}$

Thus, when Carbon monoxide is passed over the heated Copper oxide , Carbon dioxide gas is evolved and reddish metal copper is obtained.