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Iron is extracted by the reduction of iron oxide - Edexcel - GCSE Chemistry - Question 5 - 2012 - Paper 1
Question 5
Iron is extracted by the reduction of iron oxide. In the extraction process, iron oxide is reduced by heating it with carbon. (i) The extraction process involves b... show full transcript
Worked Solution & Example Answer:Iron is extracted by the reduction of iron oxide - Edexcel - GCSE Chemistry - Question 5 - 2012 - Paper 1
Step 1
Step 2
(ii) Explain why iron can be extracted from iron oxide by heating it with carbon but electrolysis has to be used to extract aluminium from its oxide.
Answer
Iron is lower in reactivity than aluminium, which allows it to be reduced from its oxide using carbon. Carbon can remove the oxygen from iron oxide, making it an effective reducing agent in the extraction process.
In contrast, aluminium is more reactive than iron, so carbon cannot be used to reduce aluminium oxide effectively. Instead, electrolysis is required to extract aluminium, as it is a more powerful method to remove oxygen from aluminium oxide, yielding pure aluminium.