Question

How can zinc oxide be reduced to a metallic Zinc?

Answer 1

Reduction of Zinc Oxide$\left(\mathrm{ZnO}\right)$:-

• When Zinc oxide$\left(\mathrm{ZnO}\right)$ is heated with carbon at a high temperature, it is reduced to metallic zinc.
• In the process Carbon monoxide$\left(\mathrm{CO}\right)$ is also formed as a product.
• The balanced chemical reaction can be represented as:

$\underset{\mathrm{Zinc}\mathrm{oxide}}{\mathrm{ZnO}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Carbon}}{\mathrm{C}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}\stackrel{∆}{\to }\underset{\mathrm{Zinc}}{\mathrm{Zn}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Carbon}\mathrm{monoxide}}{\mathrm{CO}\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}$

Therefore, Zinc oxide is reduced to metallic Zinc with the help of Carbon as a reducing agent.