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Dihydrogen acts as a powerful reducing agent on many metal oxides, but it cannot reduce all of them.Hydrogen Chemistry Question

Question

Dihydrogen acts as a powerful reducing agent on many metal oxides, but it cannot reduce all of them. Which of the following heavy metal oxides will successfully be reduced to its elemental metallic state when heated in a stream of $H_2$ gas?

Answer: C

💡 Solution & Explanation

Dihydrogen can reduce oxides of metals that are less electropositive than iron (or roughly below hydrogen in the reactivity series), such as $CuO$, $PbO$, and $Fe_3O_4$. It is not a strong enough reducing agent to cleave the immense lattice energies of highly electropositive metal oxides like $Al_2O_3$, $MgO$, or $Na_2O$.

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