Question

What chemical process is used for obtaining a metal from oxides?

Answer 1

Hint: Oxides that react with both acids and bases are amphoteric. Metals tend to form basic oxides, nonmetals tend to form acidic oxides, and amphoteric oxides are formed by elements near the boundary between metals and metalloids. Reduction process is used for converting metal oxides into metal. Various reducing agents are used for different metal oxides to obtain free metal.

Complete step by step answer:
The reduction process is useful to obtain free metal from oxides. The reduction reaction chosen depends on the chemical reaction or reactivity of metals. Generally, reduction or electrolytic reduction process utilized.
Metal oxides are reduced by using a reducing agent which is carbon or highly reactive metals. The chemical process used for obtaining a metal from its oxide is reduction. For example, metallic zinc is obtained from the zinc oxide with the help of heating by carbon. The equation is given below;
 $Zn{O_{(s)}} + {C_{(s)}} \to Z{n_{(s)}} + C{O_{(g)}}$
In the above reaction we find the metal from the metal oxide with the help of reducing agent which is carbon.
Carbon is known as the reducing agent which reacts with metal oxide and forms carbon dioxide and gives us free metal.

Note: Reduction is the loss of oxygen atom from a molecule or the gaining of one or more electrons. A reduction reaction is seen from the point of view of the molecule being reduced, as when one molecule gets reduced another gets oxidized. The full reaction is known as a redox reaction.