Question

Reaction of PbO and Carbon
\[PbO+C\to Pb+CO\]
A.here carbon is reducing agent
B. here Pb is oxidizing agent
C. Both a & b
D. None of the above

Answer 1

Hint: The reaction of PbO and carbon is a redox reaction where one substance gets reduced and one substance gets oxidised. This is an interesting property of the elements of the group 14.

Complete answer:
In order to answer the question, we need to learn about the properties of lead and the group 14 elements. Group IV A contains six elements carbon, silicon, germanium, tin, lead and ununquadium. The penultimate shell (prior to outermost) contains $1{{s}^{2}}$-grouping in carbon, $2{{s}^{2}}2{{p}^{6}}$(8 electrons) in silicon and $(n-1){{s}^{2}}(n-1){{p}^{6}}(n-1){{d}^{10}}$ (18 electrons) in other elements. This shows why carbon differs from silicon in some respects and these two differ from the rest of the members of this group. General electronic configuration is $n{{s}^{2}}n{{p}^{2}}$. Some properties of group 14 elements are:
Atomic Radii: The atomic radii of group 14 elements are less than the corresponding elements of group 13. However, the atomic radii increases down the family.
Ionisation energy: The higher ionisation energies than group 13 are due to the higher nuclear charge and smaller size of atoms of group 14 elements. While moving down the group, the ionisation energies decrease till Sn.
Oxidation state: The elements of group 14 show tetravalency by sharing four of its valence electrons. Therefore, they have an oxidation state of +4. In addition, Ge, Sn and Pb also show 2 oxidation states.
Catenation: Catenation is the ability of like atoms to link with one another through covalent bonds. Tendency decreases from C to Pb. It is due to the decreasing M-M single bond energy.
Now, let us come to our question. The reaction of PbO and Carbon can be represented as:
\[\begin{align}
& PbO+C\to Pb+CO \\
& \,\,+2\,\,\,\,\,\,\,0\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,0\,\,\,\,\,\,+2 \\
\end{align}\]
Lead oxide gets reduced and oxidised the carbon to carbon monoxide. It is a redox reaction. Similarly, carbon is the reducing agent.

As both the conditions are included, so we get our correct answer as option C.

NOTE: In this family there members i.e. carbon, silicon and germanium are affected by water while lead is not affected by water due to formation of protective oxide film but tin decomposes steam into tin dioxide and hydrogen gas.