2:07 understand how displacement reactions involving halogens and halides provide evidence for the trend in reactivity in Group 7
Group 7 elements are called the Halogens. As you go up group 7 (decreasing atomic number), the elements become more reactive. For example, fluorine is the most reactive and astatine is the least reactive.
A more reactive halogen will displace a less reactive halogen, e.g. chlorine will displace bromine:
By reacting a halogen solution with a potassium halide solution and making observations, the order of their reactivity can be deduced:
| Potassium chloride, KCl(aq) | Potassium bromide, KBr(aq) | Potassium iodide, KI(aq) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chlorine, Cl2(aq) | No change | Colourless to orange | Colourless to brown |
| Bromine, Br2(aq) | No change | No change | Colourless to brown |
| Iodine, I2(aq) | No change | No change | No change |
From the above results, chlorine displaces both bromine and iodine, and bromine displaces iodine. Therefore the order of reactivity is: chlorine is more reactive than bromine, which in turn is more reactive than iodine.