why is it so that copper reacts with H2SO4 and HNO3 only but not with HCl?
my school teacher says that copper reacts with sulphuric acid and nitric acid but not with hydrochloric acid and my tution sir says that copper doesnot reacts with acids at all.what is the real thing??
meritnation experts please!!!!!
A general equation for the reaction of a metal and acid is
metal + acid --------> metal salt + hydrogen gas
However, the above reaction is not true for all the metals. Only those metals will liberate hydrogen gas from the acid which are more reactive than hydrogen and hence are placed above hydrogen in the reactivity series. Copper is less reactive than hydrogen, therefore it is placed below hydrogen in the reactivity series. As a result, it will not liberate hydrogen gas from any acid. Now, both sulphuric acid and nitric acid are strong oxidising agents. Hence, they will oxidise copper metal to Cu2+ ion. However, no hydrogen gas will be formed, only copper metal will be oxidised here. On the other hand, HCl is not that strong oxidising agent, in fact its use as an oxidising agent is not too well known. Hence it does not react with copper metal at all.
@ Alika, good effort. Keep it up!!!