Iron 3 oxide

It is because aluminium is more reactive than iron. Aluminium prefers to be bound to other elements so energy is released when it reacts with iron oxide. So when heated with iron oxide, the reaction will give out a lot of heat.

The atoms then rearrange themselves into a different element (iron) and a different compound (aluminium oxide). This will form the chemical equation:

• Fe2O3 + 2Al -> Al2O3 + 2Fe

This reaction simply means that one molecule of iron(III) oxide reacts with two atoms of aluminium to form one molecule of aluminium oxide and two atoms of iron metal.

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