Question

Thermite is a mixture of iron oxide and
(A) aluminium powder
(B) zinc powder
(C) iron turning
(D) copper turnings

Answer 1

Hint: Thermite is the mixture of iron oxide and an alloy. It is found that Thermite reaction is an exothermic reaction between metal and metal oxide, where metal acts as a reducing agent and reduces the metal oxide.

Complete step by step answer:
- The thermite reaction is an exothermic reaction (that is when a large amount of heat energy is released), between the metal and metal oxide. For example, the reaction between the aluminium with the metal oxides, where aluminium acts as a reducing agent.
- It is found that the aluminium reduces the metal oxide most probably an iron (lll) oxide to produce ferrous and aluminium oxide, and during the reaction, a large amount of energy is released.
- We can see the reaction taking place between iron oxide and aluminium:
\[F{{e}_{2}}{{O}_{3}}+2Al\to 2Fe+A{{l}_{2}}{{O}_{3}}+heat\]
Hence, from above discussion it is clear that thermite is a mixture of iron oxide and aluminium powder.

Hence option D is correct.

Additional information:
 There various uses of thermite reaction are found, some of them are like:
- Thermite can be used for quickly cutting or welding steel such as rail tracks.
- We can see that thermite reaction, when used to purify the ores of some metals, is called the thermite process.
There are some hazardous effects of thermite is also found like:
- Mostly it is found that thermite usage is hazardous due to the extremely high temperatures produced and it is also seen that there is extreme difficulty in smothering a reaction once initiated.
- The thermite reaction can take place accidentally in industrial locations where workers use various grinding and cutting wheels with ferrous metals. It is also found that using aluminium in this situation produces a mixture of oxides that can explode violently and which is very dangerous.

Note:
- It is important to note here that aluminium acts as a reducing agent that reduces the metal oxide. It is an exothermic reaction in which a large amount of energy is released.