Today (22 September) marks the birthday of Michael Faraday, a chemist and physicist who made significant contributions to the study of electrochemistry. He’s responsible for popularising many of the terms we use in electrochemistry today, such as anode and cathode, as well as his eponymous laws of electrolysis.
The metal reactivity series is a commonly taught concept in chemistry, placing the metals, as its name suggests, in order of reactivity from most reactive to least reactive. It’s also a useful tool in predicting the products of simple displacement reactions involving two different metals, as well as providing an insight into why different metals are extracted from their ores in different manners. This graphic places a selection of common metals into order of reactivity, as well as showing their reactions with air, water and steam.
