Group Chemistry, Separation and Acids
Apply group trends and displacement, select separation techniques and reason about acids, bases, salts and pH.
How to prepare for the current ESAT
Confirm your course combination, build no-calculator fluency from Mathematics 1 upward, and use official Pearson materials for authentic timing and interface rehearsal.
Core concepts
Concept 1
Use Group 1, 17 and 18 properties and trends to predict reactions.
Exam cue: Compare relative reactivity before predicting a displacement.
Concept 2
Match mixture properties to distillation, chromatography, filtration, crystallisation and other techniques.
Exam cue: Identify whether components differ in solubility, phase or boiling point.
Concept 3
Distinguish strength from concentration and use proton transfer, neutralisation and logarithmic pH change.
Exam cue: Ask whether the statement concerns ionisation strength or amount per volume.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Reversing the Group 1 and Group 17 reactivity trends.
Guardrail: Do not use calculator-dependent shortcuts, import a fact outside the annual specification or overlook a unit, sign, scale or course-module boundary.
Using filtration to separate a dissolved solid.
Guardrail: Do not use calculator-dependent shortcuts, import a fact outside the annual specification or overlook a unit, sign, scale or course-module boundary.
Treating a dilute acid as necessarily weak.
Guardrail: Do not use calculator-dependent shortcuts, import a fact outside the annual specification or overlook a unit, sign, scale or course-module boundary.
Memory anchors
Group trend
Use position and outer electrons to predict similar chemistry.
Displacement
A more reactive element displaces a less reactive one.
Chromatography
Different affinities produce different movement.
Crystallisation
Concentrate a solution and allow crystals to form.
Strong versus concentrated
Strength is ionisation; concentration is amount per volume.
One pH unit
A change of one represents a tenfold H⁺ concentration change.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
Chlorine displaces bromide because chlorine is?
Potassium reacts more vigorously than sodium because?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Continue learning
Move forward only after this module is stable.
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