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Question:

Displacement reactions with aluminum?

It seemed in my experiment that aluminum wasn't reactive at all in the displacement reactions, except with copper sulfate. Is there a reason? or did I make a mistake? aluminum is more reactive than e.g silver nitrate, why didn't it react with it?

Answer:

Aluminium has a protective coating of Aluminium Oxide, this prevents many chemicals reaching the surface. This is because aluminium has a very strong affinity for oxygen and bonds to it with extremely strong bonds. It can be removed by dipping it carefully into a solution of Mercury (II) Chloride.

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