displacement reaction

• Displacement reactions occur when an iron nail is placed in copper sulfate, causing the nail to turn orange and the copper sulfate to change to iron sulfate.
• Displacement reactions only occur if the metal involved at the start is more reactive, for example, magnesium plus copper sulfate, iron plus copper sulfate, and zinc plus calcium calcium sulfate will not result in a reaction.
• Group seven, which includes fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine, is known as the halogens.
• Halogens can displace each other, for example, chlorine plus sodium bromide will result in sodium chloride plus bromine.
• Oxidation is the loss of electrons, and reduction is the gain of electrons.
• In a displacement reaction, one metal is oxidized and the other is reduced, for example, in the reaction of iron and copper sulfate, the iron atoms are oxidized and the copper ions are reduced.
• Redox reactions involve both reduction and oxidation, for example, the reaction of magnesium and copper chloride results in magnesium chloride and copper.
• Hydrogen and carbon appear on the reactivity series sometimes they behave like metals, for example, with hydrogen, which is not surprising given its position on the periodic table, but sometimes they behave like a metal in a blast furnace, for which carbon is used.