Colocado por: hangasBoa questão :) e também me deixou curioso.
Tinha noção da relação entre a oxidação e a capacidade de perder eletrons, de modo que também fiquei intrigado.
Depois de umas pesquisas:
Zinc is more reactive than copper not because the last sub orbital of zinc is 4s2 while of copper is 4s1 if it is than according to this magnesium should be more reactive than sodium as the last sub orbital of magnesium is 3s2 while of sodium is 3s1
so this is not the case why zinc is more reactive than copper, ok remember it.
Now then question arises what is the reason of being zinc more reactive than copper??
So the answer is zinc is more reactive than copper because zinc able to loose its outer electron more readily than copper and this phenomena occurs because the copper metal is able to delocalized its outer electron more readily than zinc so the metallic bond of copper is stronger than zinc so for having reaction it becomes necessary to break this bond first and breaking the metallic bond of copper require more energy than that of zinc and hence as the metallic bond of zinc breaks zinc reacts.This is the reason why zinc is more reactive than copper
in:https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/25192/why-is-zinc-more-reactive-than-copper
Pelos vistos o facto de o Cobre perder o seu eletrão mais facilmente torna-o um bocado mais estável para reagir por ficar com a camada de valencia vazia.
(Pelo menos foi como entendi)