Single+Displacement+R.Stacey

Single Displacement

Single displacement is also known as a replacement reaction. What happens is there is an element alone and a compound which combine. Many times, metals switch places. On the right side of the arrow, the two metals switch and the more reactive metal is in the compound and the other metal is alone.  v  In general, this can be represented by ** A + BX → AX + B ** For instance, you may see: // Cooper Sulfate and Iron react to form Iron Sulfate and Copper //.  v  So we have Copper, Sulfate, and Iron  v  Their symbols are Cu, SO4, and Fe  2. Now we have to find charges:  v  Cu is a transition metal so depending on the other elements, it is either +2 or +3.  v  SO4 is a compound, but since it is the same on both sides, it is not broken down and the charge is -2.  v  Fe is also a transition metal and is either +2 or +3.  v  So when we start out, we have CuSO4 +Fe  à  FeSO4 +Cu  v  This tells us that Cu is +2 since SO4 is -2 and Fe is more reactive because it replaces Cu.  v  So now we know the charges, but since the switch places it is just CuSO4 + Fe  à  FeSO4 + Cu. o  The tricky thing here, is that the Fe acts like +2 on this side, so that the whole thing is equal to zero, even though it is more active than Cu, so you would think it has a higher charge.  click here to get back to the main page!!!!
 * 1) So first, we look at the element names and find the symbols.