Oxidation and Reduction

Oxidation and Reduction

The science aid, chemistry category of Industrial Chemistry features many articles that focus on the extraction of metals from their ores, this process involves oxidation and reduction; so this is a very good starting point.

They are both different types of reaction.

Reduction and Oxidation

Redox and Metal Ores

A redox reaction is simply one where both oxidation and reduction take place, and the word redox is made up of the first syllable of each word REDuction OXidation.

The extraction of a metal from its ore depends on its reactivity. A metal that is high in the reactivity series (like potassium, calcium) can only be obtained by electrolysis because metals high in the reactivity series form stable compounds. An example of a metal extracted like this is aluminium.

It is metals in the middle of the reactivity series (like zinc and tin) that are extracted by reduction reactions. An example of metal extracted like this is iron.

And metals low in the reactivity series (like gold and platinum) form unstable compounds and can be extracted from their ores simply by heating.

If you need to reference this article in your work, you can copy-paste the following depending on your required format:

APA (American Psychological Association)
Oxidation and Reduction. (2017). In ScienceAid. Retrieved Nov 28, 2023, from https://scienceaid.net/chemistry/applied/oxidationreduction.html

MLA (Modern Language Association) "Oxidation and Reduction." ScienceAid, scienceaid.net/chemistry/applied/oxidationreduction.html Accessed 28 Nov 2023.

Chicago / Turabian ScienceAid.net. "Oxidation and Reduction." Accessed Nov 28, 2023. https://scienceaid.net/chemistry/applied/oxidationreduction.html.

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