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 why is iron more reactive than copper?

Hi Deepti,
The reactivity of transition metals can be understood on the basis of the electronic configuration of the sub shells.
You have studied about the electronic configuration on the basis of K, L M and N shells.
These shells further have sub shells s, p, d and f and it is easier to study the stability on the basis of electronic configuration of these sub shells.
These sub shells are stable when they are fully or half filled.
Like p sub shell is stable when it has 3(half filled) or 6 (fully filled) electrons and d sub shell is stable when it has 10 electrons.
The electronic configuration of iron is 1s2, 2s2, 2p6, 3s2, 3p6, 4s2, 3d6
And that of copper is 1s2, 2s2, 2p6, 3s2, 3p6, 4s1, 3d10
Thus, we say that the copper has stable electronic configuration due to filled d- orbitals and iron does not have fully filled d- orbital thus, iron is more reactive than copper.
Hope you got an idea about sub-shells concept.
You will study in detail about these sub shells in higher classes.
Best Wishes!

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 Not necessarily. Fluorine and oxygen are the most reactive of all elements, yet they are at the top right of the periodic table.

In zinc, the 3d orbital is completely filled, thereby shielding the 4s electrons and reducing the nuclear pull on them. Because of this lower nuclear attraction, the outer electrons in zinc can be removed quite easily and form the zinc ion.

In iron, the 3d orbital is incomplete, meaning the 4s electrons are not shielded completely. They experience a larger nuclear attraction, and therefore are not removed as easily as the zinc 4s electrons. This means iron is less reactive.

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iron has 4 unpaired electron in 3d subshell but copper has only 1 so iron will react more and metallic bond will be strong in case of iron..............

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 In iron the nucleus holds the last electrons in its shell tightly and in case of copper  the nucleus does not hold the electrons so tightly as iron does.

To prove it we can react iron with copper sulphate solution. we find that iron displaces copper easily and iron sulphate solution is formed.

hope u got it!

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 I  READ IN A BENGALI MIDIOM SCHOOL. SO I CAN'T UNDERSTAND SOME WORDS. PLEASE TELL US IN BENGALI IF YOU HAVE NO PROBLEM.SO THAT LIKE I ,TYPES OF STUDENT CAN UNDERSTAND.

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