Question

Rahul has started a new shop where he sells food packed in iron containers. But he is receiving a lot of complaints about the spoilage of food. He tells his friend Rohit, who is a chemical engineer, about this problem. Rohit suggests him to use tin coated iron instead. What could be the reason for this?

Answer 1

Hint : To answer these types of questions, we have to take the help of the reactivity series. The metal which is less reactive should be used in order to prevent food from spoiling. Less reactive metal should be used so that it will not react with the food.

Complete Step By Step Answer:
Tin coated cans should be used to store food. Tin is coated by the process of electroplating. As tin is less reactive than iron, it is more preferable. So, food does not come into direct contact with iron and will be protected from getting spoiled. The reactivity of metals gives information about the decreasing order of reactivities of metals. The data provided by the reactivity series helps us to predict whether a metal can displace another metal in a single displacement reaction. It also gives information about the reactivity of metals towards acids and water. The electropositivity of the elements reduces while moving down the activity series of the metals. The metals which are at the top in the reactivity series have the ability to displace metals that are placed lower from their salt solutions.

Note :
The metals placed at the top of the reactivity series are powerful reducing agents because they are oxidized easily. These metals corrode easily. The reducing ability of the metals becomes weak while going down the series. The metals which are found above hydrogen in the activity series liberate hydrogen gas on reaction with dilute hydrochloric acid or dilute sulphuric acid.