Nitric Acid - A special one

Yoz,

We have been working on Acids for some time now.

What we know is that acid reacts with reactive metal (e.g. Zn, Mg, Ca) to form salt and hydrogen. The unreactive metals (e.g. Au, Cu) do not react with acids.

However Cu does react with nitric acid. Why? Because nitric acid is an oxidising agent as well. Read more about the nitric acid here.

Some terms you would be familiar would be: strong acid, acid concentration, etc.

You could also read about the 'strongest' acid which scientists have made. (see here) How is this acid contradicting what we discussed in class?

Carborane, part of the world’s strongest acid. [Atom color code: orange = boron, gray = carbon, green = chlorine, white = hydrogen.] Picture from ScienceDaily.com