how pure iron is exracted from its ore?
Smelting of iron was discovered over 2 thousand years ago. The basic process is to heat up the ore (which is mostly Fe-oxide) in the presence of C (coal or even wood). The reaction between C and O produces CO CO2 and takes O away from Fe2O3, Fe3O4, and Fe) (the 3 most common oxides) so, for example, Fe2O3 + C Fe + CO2 (once you balance the eqn). This does not make pure Fe because the Fe ore is not pure. In addition to the extra C the Fe picks up as Fe3C, Fe carbide, there are many impurities. One common impurity is S in the form of Fe-sulfide. This creates problems when you try to hammer the lump of Fe into a shape. Typically, adding Mn addresses this problem because the Mn takes S away from Fe-sulfide (forming Mn sulfide). In modern times (the start of the industrial revolution) Mr Bessimer invented the Bessimer Converter for producing Fe from ore in large quantities. There have been numerous improvements since. Google Mr B, blast furnaces, steel making, check out pedia. To make pure Fe (at least as pure as we know how to do), you start with commercially pure Fe (or commercially pure Fe oxide) and disolve it in acid and use electrolysis to plate out Fe that is more pure than what you started with. You can then melt the Fe in a vacuum and some of the remaining impurities will boil away (they have higher vapor pressure than Fe when Fe is molten). There are other metallurgical tricks depending on how much money you want to spend but the highest purity Fe is around 99.9999% pure Fe. I hope this helps.
