Question

What is an example of a metal purified by the Mond process?

Answer 1

As we have learnt that the Mond process is a technique involved in purification of metals and in this method carbon monoxide is used as a reagent resulting in formation of carbonyl compounds. The impure metal reacts with carbon monoxide at a specific temperature and the impurities are removed as solid

Complete Step by step answer: As we know that refining of metals depends upon the nature of the metal and nature of impurities. Mond process is one such method which is used to purify Nickel under mild conditions. This method uses carbon monoxide as a reagent which converts impure nickel into its pure metallic form and also resulting in formation of an intermediate nickel carbonyl compound which is not a property of any other elements known.
Let us discuss the steps involved in Mond process:
Firstly the impure nickel reacts with carbon monoxide at a temperature of about $330K - 350K$and results in the formation of a volatile gas of nickel carbonyl compound and the impurities in this step are left behind as solid. We can represent this equation as:

$Ni(impure) + 4CO\xrightarrow{{330K - 350K}}Ni{(CO)_4}(volatile)$

Now in the second step this mixture of volatile substance will be heated at a temperature of about $450K - 470K$ resulting in formation of pure nickel metal and carbon monoxide. This can also be represented by the equation as:

$Ni{(CO)_4}\xrightarrow{{450K - 470K}}Ni(pure) + 4CO$

Therefore, the example of a metal purified by the Mond process is Nickel.

Note: Mond process along with purification of nickel, is used in place of electroplating for plating the nickel onto other metals to protect them from any oxidation or reduction reaction. Nickel is also used in making stainless steel because nickel has the ability to withstand high temperatures and heat.