I was reading up on electroplating and I came across some things which really confused me:
Faraday's First Law says that the amount of metal plated onto the cathode is proportionate to the current, so it should be that a higher current= more metal plated onto the cathode (I assume). And from Ohm's Law, a higher current= higher voltage so (by syllogistic reasoning) a higher voltage should give you more metal plated onto the cathode.
However this isn't the case, because I did an experiment recently where the highest voltage didn't produce the highest amount of metal plated onto the cathode. I did some reading on why, and I read (on the internet) that it's because when you increase the current by a lot, the ions formed at the anode can't keep up with the rate of electron flow and electrons just end up combining with other things in solution and no metal forms.
I have some issues with this though; I used a solution with ions already in it, so shouldn't there be no problem for me? Even if the ions cannot be formed at the anode fast enough, I have ions already in solution, so I thought it would be fine. Plus, the experiment was run for only 25 minutes, so I doubt they would've all been used up or anything.
Also, even if it were true that the current was just too high for the ions to keep up; wouldn't the amount of metal formed be at least equal to or greater than the amount formed for lower voltages? It's just that you're forming more metal in less time, ie it gets faster (I think); so you should get the same amount at say 5 V that you do that 3 V, even if towards the end of the experiment in 5 V it gets inefficient and you stop plating. Because the amount of ions or anything doesn't change.
Sorry for the huge amount of writing, I just thought it'd be easier if I explained my thought process. I'd appreciate it a lot if anyone could help me! Thanks so much. :)