Copper’s reduction potential is greater than that of zinc or iron. Iron and zinc can thus be employed to remove copper from a solution in hydrometallurgy.
Fe(s) + Cu2+(aq) ⇒ Fe2+ (aq) + Cu(s)
However, a metal that is more reactive than zinc is necessary to displace it, such as K, Ca, or other metals. The issue currently is that when these metals react with water, hydrogen gas is released. As a result, hydrometallurgy cannot be utilised to extract zinc from them.
![\[\begin{array}{l} \square \vec{r}=(\hat{i}+\hat{j})+\lambda(2 \hat{i}-\hat{j}+\hat{k}) \\ \vec{r}=(2 \hat{i}+\hat{j}-\hat{k})+\mu(3 \hat{i}-5 \hat{j}+2 \hat{k}) \end{array}\]](https://www.learnatnoon.com/s/wp-content/ql-cache/quicklatex.com-2f8ab5b81e582387cb9ae472791476e4_l3.png "Rendered by QuickLaTeX.com")