Replacement Reaction: Copper onto Zinc

Summary

A piece of zinc is placed in a copper sulfate solution.

Chemicals and Solutions

  • Piece of zinc foil
  • 0.5 or 1M copper sulfate

Materials

Beaker

Procedure

Hint: Metals can be cut into interesting shapes, and the demo done on the overhead.

Discussion

Copper is plated out simply by placing the zinc in the copper sulfate solution.

\( \ce{ Zn_{(s)} + CuSO4_{(aq)} -> Cu_{(s)} + ZnSO4_{(aq)} } \)