Question

remember, a metal ion can only take electrons from a metal that has the same activity or higher. using the activity series and the information from the handbook, which method do you think the suspects used to make the coins, additive plating or displacement plating? additive plating: they used a redox reaction between zinc solid and zinc ions. this created neutral zinc atoms that were plated onto the copper coin. displacement plating: they used a redox reaction between neutral copper and zinc ions. electrons from copper were transferred to zinc ions. the copper metal atoms become ions. the copper metal atoms are displaced with zinc. explain your hypothesis below.

Explanation:

To determine the plating method, we analyze the activity series. In displacement plating, a metal (like copper) donates electrons to a metal ion (like zinc ions) only if the donating metal is more active than the metal in the ion. But zinc is more active than copper (from activity series), so copper cannot donate electrons to zinc ions (since a metal ion takes electrons from a metal with same or higher activity, and copper is less active than zinc). Thus, displacement plating (which requires copper to reduce zinc ions) is not possible. Additive plating uses zinc solid and zinc ions (a redox reaction within the same metal, no activity series conflict), so it's feasible.

Answer:

The suspects used additive plating. Because in displacement plating, copper (less active than zinc) can't donate electrons to zinc ions (as a metal ion takes electrons from a metal with same or higher activity). Additive plating (redox between zinc solid and zinc ions) doesn't rely on activity series for different metals, so it's the viable method.