Friday, March 25, 2011

Does iron nitrate react when put with silver nitrate?

When iron nitrate reacts with silver nitrate, the following reaction takes place:


`Fe(NO_3)_2 + AgNO_3 -> Ag + Fe(NO_3)_3`


In this reaction, ferrous nitrate reacts with silver nitrate to produce silver metal and ferric nitrate.


This is an example of an oxidation-reduction reaction. Silver has an oxidation number of +1 on the reactant side (in silver nitrate). However, upon reacting with ferrous nitrate, it gains an electron and becomes silver metal with an oxidation number of 0. Since it gained an electron, silver got reduced in this reaction. Iron, on the other hand got oxidized in this reaction. In ferrous nitrate, iron has an oxidation number of +2, while in ferric nitrate the oxidation number is +3. Since iron lost an electron, we can say that it got oxidized in this reaction.


Hope this helps. 

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