Order of Reactivity
2 guided lessons · 18 checks · 2. Inorganic Chemistry → Reactivity Series
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The reactivity series
The reactivity series of record runs from potassium at the top, through sodium, lithium, then calcium, magnesium and aluminium, before zinc, iron and the noble trio copper, silver, gold at the bottom. Carbon matters too: it holds a place of its own on the series, between aluminium and zinc. Hydrogen also holds a position, between iron and copper, which is why only metals above it react with dilute acids.
What you know already
From Metals Reacting with Water & Acids and Metal Displacement Reactions you have built the ranking tools: vigour with water and acids, and which displacements succeed. This note fixes the full order of reactivity in memory, including where carbon and hydrogen sit among the metals, and gives a mnemonic that makes the list stick.
Key points of understanding
- The order of record is potassium, sodium, lithium, calcium, magnesium, aluminium, then zinc, iron, copper, silver and gold.
- Carbon sits between aluminium and zinc on the reactivity series.
- Hydrogen sits between iron and copper on the reactivity series.
- Carbon's position matters because it is used in the extraction of metals from their oxides.
- The most reactive metals sit at the top and the least reactive at the bottom.
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1.The reactivity series
The reactivity series of record runs from potassium at the top, through sodium, lithium, then calcium, magnesium and aluminium, before zinc, iron and the noble trio copper, silver, gold at the bottom. Carbon matters too: it holds a place of its own on the series, between aluminium and zinc. Hydrogen also holds a position, between iron and copper, which is why only metals above it react with dilute acids.
Key points
- The order of record is potassium, sodium, lithium, calcium, magnesium, aluminium, then zinc, iron, copper, silver and gold.
- Carbon sits between aluminium and zinc on the reactivity series.
- Hydrogen sits between iron and copper on the reactivity series.
- Carbon's position matters because it is used in the extraction of metals from their oxides.
- The most reactive metals sit at the top and the least reactive at the bottom.
Guided content from the SME authoring corpus — note rn_DGkNCJRcCN4VQ28p, pinned at 6fb25fc02d1a · promoted SyllabAI/syllabai-resources e967e75f1339