Question

Write true or false for the following statements:
Non metals react with acids to give a salt and hydrogen gas.
A.True
B.False

Answer 1

Hint: Metals can easily donate its electron to the hydrogen ion donated by the acid in the medium. Reduction of hydrogen ion by the metal produces the hydrogen gas. But non metal tends to accept electrons instead of donating it.

Complete step by step answer:
- Metal like zinc displaces hydrogen from the acids like sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, etc. This results in liberation of hydrogen gas. As the metal combines with the remaining part of the acid and forms a compound called salt. Thus, the reaction of a metal with an acid can be summarized as: \[{\text{Acid}} + {\text{Metal}} \to {\text{Salt}} + {\text{hydrogen gas}}\].
- For example zinc metal when made to react with sodium hydroxide results in formation of sodium zincate and hydrogen gas evolved. This reaction is as follow: \[2{\text{NaOH}} + {\text{Zn}} \to {\text{N}}{{\text{a}}_2}{\text{Zn}}{{\text{O}}_2} + {{\text{H}}_2}\]. So, metal reacts with acids to procure a gas which burns with a pop sound and that gas is hydrogen gas.
- As the metal above than hydrogen in the reactivity series is more reactive than hydrogen. Thus metal reacts with acids to give a salt and hydrogen gas. Generally, non metals do not react with acids because when a compound or molecule reacts with acid it provides electrons to the hydrogen ions. But as we know nonmetals tend to accept electrons, not to donate electrons. But on the other hand, metal tends to easily lose electrons.

Thus, the correct option is B.

Note:
Hydrogen gas is not evolved when a metal reacts with nitric acid. This is due to the very strong oxidizing nature of nitric acid. Hydrogen gas evolved is oxidized by nitric acid to produce water and itself gets reduced to any of the nitrogen oxides.