Oxides

What are oxides?

Oxides are compounds containing oxygen and another element.
You have seen already that metal oxides act as bases. Here we look more closely at different types of oxides,
and their behaviour.

Basic oxides
Look how these metals react with oxygen:

oxygen stream of
copper turnings
oxygen

burning magnesium

Magnesium ribbon is lit over a
Bunsen flame, and plunged into
a jar of oxygen. It burns with
a brilliant white flame, leaving
a white ash, magnesium oxide:
2Mg (s) 1 O2 (g) 2MgO (s)
Hot iron wool is plunged into a gas
jar of oxygen. It glows bright
orange, and throws out a shower of
sparks. A black solid is left in the
gas jar. It is iron(III) oxide:
4Fe (s) 1 3O2 (g) 2Fe2O3 (s)
Copper is too unreactive to catch
fire in oxygen. But when it is
heated in a stream of the gas, its
surface turns black. The black
substance is copper(II) oxide:
2Cu (s) 1 O2 (g) 2CuO (s)

The more reactive the metal, the more vigorously it reacts.

The copper(II) oxide produced in the last reaction above is insoluble in water. But it does dissolve in dilute acid:

blue
blue
blue litmus
litmus
litmus litmus stays
litmus
litmus blue
stays
stays blue
blue
copper(II)
copper(II) oxide
copper(II) oxide
oxide
turns
turns
turns red
red red

dilute
dilute
dilute
hydrochloric
hydrochloric
hydrochloric undissolved
undissolved
undissolved
acid
acid
acid copper(II)
copper(II) oxide
copper(II) oxide
oxide
heat
heat
heat

This is dilute hydrochloric acid. Copper(II) oxide dissolves in it, The resulting liquid has no effect
It turns blue litmus paper red, like when it is warmed. But after a on blue litmus. So the oxide has
all acids do. time, no more will dissolve. neutralised the acid.

Copper(II) oxide is called a basic oxide since it can neutralise an acid:

base 1 acid salt 1 water

CuO (s) 1 2HCl (aq) CuCl2 (aq) 1 H2O (l)

Iron(III) oxide and magnesium oxide behave in the same way – they too can neutralise acid, so they are basic
oxides.
In general, metals react with oxygen to form basic oxides.
Basic oxides belong to the larger group of compounds called bases.
Acidic oxides
Now look how these non-metals react with oxygen:

oxygen
oxygen oxygen
oxygen oxygen
oxygen

burning
burningcarbon
carbon burning
burningsulfur
sulfur burning
burningphosphorus
phosphorus

Powdered carbon is heated over
a Bunsen burner until red-hot,
then plunged into a jar of oxygen.
It glows bright red, and the gas
carbon dioxide is formed:
C (s) 1 O2 (g)  CO2 (g)
Sulfur catches fire over a Bunsen
burner, and burns with a blue
flame. In pure oxygen it burns even
brighter. The gas sulfur dioxide is
formed:
S (s) 1 O2 (g)   SO2 (g)
Phosphorus bursts into flame in
air or oxygen, without heating.
(So it is stored under water!)
A white solid, phosphorus
pentoxide, is formed:
P4 (s) 1 5O2 (g)    P4O10 (s)

Carbon dioxide is slightly soluble in water. The solution will turn litmus
red: it is acidic. The weak acid carbonic acid has formed:
CO2 (g) 1 H2O (l)   H2CO3 (aq)
acid alkali
Sulfur dioxide and phosphorus pentoxide also dissolve in water to form
acids. So they are all called acidic oxides.
In general, non-metals react with oxygen to form acidic oxides.

Amphoteric oxides
Aluminium is a metal, so you would expect aluminium oxide to be a base.
In fact it is both acidic and basic. It acts as a base with hydrochloric acid:  Zinc oxide: an amphoteric oxide. It will
Al2O3 (s) 1 6HCl (aq)    2AlCl3 (aq) 1 3H2O (l) react with both acid and alkali.

But it acts as an acidic oxide with sodium hydroxide, giving a compound

called sodium aluminate:
Al2O3 (s) 1 6NaOH (aq) 2Na3AlO3 (aq) 1 3H2O (l)
So aluminium oxide is called an amphoteric oxide.
An amphoteric oxide will react with both acids and alkalis.
Zinc oxide is also amphoteric.

Neutral oxides
Some oxides of non-metals are neither acidic nor basic: they are neutral.
Neutral oxides do not react with acids or bases.
 No pain. The neutral oxide dinitrogen
The gases carbon monoxide, CO, and dinitrogen oxide, N2O are neutral. oxide (N2O) is used as an anaesthetic by
(Other nitrogen oxides are acidic.) dentists. It is also called laughing gas.

1 How would you show that magnesium oxide is a base?
2 Copy and complete: Metals usually form ..........
oxides while non-metals form .......... oxides.
3 See if you can arrange carbon, phosphorus and sulfur in
order of reactivity, using their reaction with oxygen.
4 What colour change would you see, on adding litmus
solution to a solution of phosphorus pentoxide?
5 What is an amphoteric oxide? Give two examples.
6 Dinitrogen oxide is a neutral oxide. It is quite soluble in water.
How could you prove it is neutral?
Making salts
You can make salts by reacting acids with metals, or insoluble bases, or
soluble bases (alkalis), or carbonates.

Starting with a metal

Zinc sulfate can be made by reacting dilute sulfuric acid with zinc:
Zn (s) 1 H2SO4 (aq)    ZnSO4 (aq) 1 H2 (g)
These are the steps:

unreacted
unreacted
unreacted
zinc
zinc
zinc zinc
zinc
zinc crystals
crystals
crystals
form
form
form

dilute
dilute
dilute aqueous
aqueoussolution
aqueous solution
solution
sulfuric
sulfuricacid
sulfuric acid
acid of
ofzinc
of zincsulfate
zinc sulfate
sulfate

1  Add the zinc to the acid in a 2  Some zinc is still left. (The zinc 3  Heat the solution to evaporate
beaker. It starts to dissolve, and was in excess.) Remove it by some water, to obtain a saturated
hydrogen bubbles off. Bubbling filtering. This leaves an aqueous solution. Leave this to cool.
stops when all the acid is used up. solution of zinc sulfate. Crystals of zinc sulfate appear.

This method is fine for making salts of magnesium, aluminium, zinc,

and iron. But you could not use it with sodium, potassium, or calcium,
because these metals react violently with acids.
At the other extreme, the reaction of lead with acids is too slow, and
copper, silver and gold do not react at all. (There is more about the
reactivity of metals with acids in Unit 13.2.)

Starting with an insoluble base

Copper will not react with dilute sulfuric acid. So to make copper(II)
 Crystals of copper(II) sulfate. They are
sulfate, you must start with a base such as copper(II) oxide, which is hydrated: they contain water molecules
insoluble. The reaction that takes place is: in the crystal structure. Their full formula
CuO (s) 1 H2SO4 (aq)   CuSO4 (aq) 1 H2O (l) is CuSO4.5H2O.
The method is quite like the one above:

excess
copper(II) oxide
blue solution
blue crystals
form

undissolved
copper(II) oxide
heat
1  Add some copper(II) oxide to
dilute sulfuric acid. It dissolves on
warming, and the solution turns
blue. Add more until no more will
dissolve …
aqueous solution
of copper(II) sulfate
2  … which means all the acid has
now been used up. Remove the
excess solid by filtering. This
leaves a blue solution of copper(II)
sulfate in water.
3  Heat the solution to obtain a
saturated solution. Then leave it to
cool. Crystals of copper(II) sulfate
form. They look like the crystals in
the photo above.

You could also use copper(II) carbonate as the starting compound here.
Starting with an alkali (soluble base)  
It is dangerous to add sodium to acid. So to make sodium salts, start
with sodium hydroxide. You can make sodium chloride like this:
NaOH (aq) 1 HCl (aq) NaCl (aq) 1 H2O ( l )
Both reactants are soluble, and no gas bubbles off. So how can you tell
when the reaction is complete? By carrying out a titration.
In a titration, one reactant is slowly added to the other in the presence of
an indicator. The indicator changes colour when the reaction is complete.
So you know how much reactant is needed for a complete reaction.
Now you can mix the correct amounts, without the indicator.
 The phenolphthalein says 'alkaline'.
The steps in making sodium chloride
You could use phenolphthalein as the indicator. It is pink in alkaline
solution, but colourless in neutral and acid solutions. These are the steps:
indicator
indicator
indicator

acid added
acid
acidadded
added
fromfrom
burette
fromburette
burette

indicator
indicator
indicator
turnsturns
turns
pink pink
pink
on
onadding
on addingadding one
onemore
one more more
solution
solution is isis
solution drop,drop,
drop,pink
pink pinkcolour
colourcolour
sodium
sodium
sodium
hydroxide
hydroxide
hydroxide suddenly
suddenly
suddenly disappears
disappears
disappears
still
stillpink
still pink pink
solution
solution
solution

1  Put 25 cm3 of sodium hydroxide 2  Add the acid from a burette, 3  The indicator suddenly turns
solution into a flask, using a just a little at a time. Swirl the colourless. So the alkali has all
pipette (for accuracy). Add two flask carefully, to help the acid been used up. The solution is
drops of phenolphthalein. and alkali mix. now neutral. Add no more acid!

start
start
start

crystals
crystals of
of
acid
acid added
added crystals chloride
sodium
sodium of
chloride
finish
finish acid added
from
from burette
burette sodium chloride
finish from burette

colourless
colourless solution
solution
colourless
(no
(no solution
indicator)
indicator)
(no indicator) heat
heat
heat
4  Find how much acid you added, 5  Now repeat without the indicator. 6  Finally, heat the solution from
using the scale on the burette. This (It would be an impurity.) Put 25 cm3 the flask to evaporate the water.
tells you how much acid is needed of alkali in the flask. Add the correct White crystals of sodium chloride
to neutralise 25 cm3 of the alkali. amount of acid to neutralise it. will be left behind.

You could use the same method for making potassium salts from potassium hydroxide, and ammonium salts
from ammonia solution.
Making insoluble salts by precipitation
Not all salts are soluble
The salts we looked at so far have all been soluble. You could obtain them
as crystals, by evaporating solutions. But not all salts are soluble.
This table shows the ‘rules’ for the solubility of salts:

Soluble Insoluble
All sodium, potassium, and
ammonium salts
All nitrates
Chlorides . . . except silver and lead chloride
Sulfates . . . except calcium, barium and lead sulfate
Sodium, potassium, and but all other carbonates are insoluble
ammonium carbonates . . .

Making insoluble salts by precipitation

Insoluble salts can be made by precipitation.
Barium sulfate is an insoluble salt. You can make it by mixing solutions water
water
water
molecule
molecule
molecule
of barium chloride and magnesium sulfate:

2+2+ 2+
– – – 2+2+ 2+ Mg
Mg Mg – – –
ClCl Cl BaBa Ba ClCl Cl
water
water
water
– – –
ClCl Cl water
water
water molecule
molecule
molecule 2+2+ 2+ 2–2– 2–
BaBa BaSOSO4SO
molecule
molecule
molecule 2+2+ 2+
SO
SO2–2– 2– 4 4
Mg
Mg Mg 4SO
– – – 2+2+ 2+
4 4 ClCl Cl Mg
Mg Mg
2–2–Ba
2–BaBa
2+2+ 2+
SO
SO4SO
4 4
– – –
ClCl Cl
2–2– 2–
2+2+ 2+
BaBa Ba
– – –
ClCl Cl SO
SO4SO
4 4 Mg
Mg2+2+ 2+
Mg
– – –
ClCl Cl – – –
ClCl Cl

A solution of barium chloride, A solution of magnesium sulfate, When you mix the two solutions,
BaCl2, contains barium ions and MgSO4, contains magnesium ions the barium and sulfate ions bond
chloride ions, as shown here. and sulfate ions. together. Barium sulfate forms as
a precipitate.
The equation for the reaction is:
BaCl2 (aq) 1 MgSO4 (aq)  BaSO4 (s) 1 MgCl2 (aq)
The ionic equation is:
Ba2 1 (aq) 1 SO42 2 (aq)  BaSO4 (s)
This does not show the magnesium and chloride ions, because they are
spectator ions. They are present, but do not take part in the reaction.

The steps in making barium sulfate

1 Make up solutions of barium chloride and magnesium sulfate.
2 Mix them. A white precipitate of barium sulfate forms at once.
3 Filter the mixture. The precipitate is trapped in the filter paper.
4 Rinse the precipitate by running distilled water through it.  The precipitation of barium sulfate.

5 Then place it in a warm oven to dry.

Choosing the starting compounds 
Barium sulfate can also be made from barium nitrate and sodium sulfate,
since both of these are soluble. As long as barium ions and sulfate ions are
present, barium sulfate will precipitate.
To precipitate an insoluble salt, you must mix a solution that
contains its positive ions with one that contains its negative ions.

Some uses of precipitation

Precipitation has some important uses in industry. For example:
 It is used to make coloured pigments for paint.
 The paint we use for home decoration
 
It is used in some places to remove harmful substances dissolved in
contains insoluble pigments like these –
water, when cleaning up waste water. usually made by precipitation.
 
It is used in making film, for photography. For this, solutions of silver
nitrate and potassium bromide are mixed with gelatine. A precipitate
of tiny crystals of insoluble silver bromide forms. The mixture is then
coated onto clear film, giving photographic film.
Later, when light strikes the film, the silver bromide will break down:
2AgBr (s)    2Ag (s) 1 Br2 (l)
You can find out more about the photographic process on page 145.

 Putting film in a camera. Most of the

film is inside the yellow cartridge, at the
top, protected from light.

Digital cameras
Today digital cameras are more
popular than cameras that use film.
In a digital camera, the light strikes
 Steady on! Most movies are shot on film, which is coated with silver halides in a surface that generates a current.
gelatine, just like camera film. Chemicals mixed with the halides provide the colour. This is converted to an image by
a little computer inside the camera.
Finding concentrations by titration
How to find a concentration by titration
On page 159, the volume of acid needed to neutralise an alkali was found Remember!
by adding the acid a little at a time, until the indicator showed that the  Concentration is usually given
reaction was complete. This method is called titration. as moles per dm3 or mol / dm3

You can find the concentration of an acid using the same method.  1000 cm3 5 1 dm3
You use a solution of alkali of known concentration (a standard solution)  To convert cm3 to dm3 move
and titrate the acid against it. the decimal point 3 places left.
So 250 cm3 5 0.25 dm3
An example
You are asked to find the concentration of a solution of hydrochloric acid,
using a 1 M solution of sodium carbonate as the standard solution.
First, titrate the acid against your standard solution.
 Measure 25 cm3 of the sodium carbonate solution into a conical flask,
using a pipette. Add a few drops of methyl orange indicator.
The indicator goes yellow.
 Pour the acid into a 50 cm3 burette. Record the level.
 Drip the acid slowly into the conical flask. Keep swirling the flask.
Stop adding acid when a single drop finally turns the indicator red.
Record the new level of acid in the burette.
 Calculate the volume of acid used. For example:
Starting level:  1.0 cm3
Final level: 28.8 cm3
Volume used: 27.8 cm3
So 27.8 cm3 of the acid neutralised 25 cm3 of the alkaline solution.
You can now calculate the concentration of the acid. Use the calculation triangle

Step 1  Calculate the number of moles of sodium carbonate used.

   1000 cm3 of 1 M solution contains 1 mole so
no of moles
​  25  ​ 
25 cm3 contains _____   3 1 mole or 0.025 mole.
1000
Step 2  From the equation, find the molar ratio of acid to alkali. concentration volume
(mol /dm3) (dm3)
2HCl (aq) 1 Na2CO3 (aq)  2NaCl (aq) 1 H2O (l) 1 CO2 (g)
2 moles 1 mole  Cover ‘concentration’ with your
The ratio is 2 moles of acid to 1 of alkali. finger to see how to calculate it.

Step 3  Work out the number of moles of acid neutralised.

1 mole of alkali neutralises 2 moles of acid so
0.025 mole of alkali neutralises 2 3 0.025 moles of acid.
0.05 moles of acid were neutralised.
Step 4  Calculate the concentration of the acid.
The volume of acid used was 27.8 cm3 or 0.0278 dm3.
number of moles _______ 0.05
concentration 5 ​ ________________
  
    ​ 5 ​    ​ 
5 1.8 mol / dm3
volume in dm 3
0.0278
So the concentration of the hydrochloric acid is 1.8 M.
 You can find how much alkali is needed to neutralise acid by  … or you could use a pH meter, to measure the pH of the
doing a titration using indicator, as here … solution. How will you know when neutralisation is complete?

Another sample calculation

Vinegar is mainly a solution of the weak acid ethanoic acid. 25 cm3 of vinegar
were neutralised by 20 cm3 of 1 M sodium hydroxide solution. What is the
concentration of ethanoic acid in the vinegar?
Step 1 Calculate the number of moles of sodium hydroxide used.
1000 cm3 of 1 M solution contains 1 mole so

​  20  ​ 
20 cm3 contains _____   3 1 mole or 0.02 mole.
1000
Step 2 From the equation, find the molar ratio of acid to alkali.
CH3COOH (aq) 1 NaOH (aq)  CH3COONa (aq) 1 H2O (l)
1 mole 1 mole
The ratio is 1 mole of acid to 1 mole of alkali.
Step 3 Work out the number of moles of acid neutralised.
1 mole of alkali neutralises 1 mole of acid so
0.02 mole of alkali neutralise 0.02 mole of acid.
Step 4 Calculate the concentration of the acid. (25 cm3 5 0.025 dm3)
number of moles ______ 0.02  The ethanoic acid in vinegar –
concentration 5 ________________
  
​      ​ 5 ​    ​ 
= 0.8 mol / dm3
volume in dm3
0.025 the bottle on the left – gives salad
dressing its tasty tang.
So the concentration of ethanoic acid in the vinegar is 0.8 M.
Note: ethanoic acid is only partly dissociated into ions at any given time.
(It is a weak acid.) But as the neutralisation proceeds, it continues to
dissociate until it has all reacted.