New answers tagged electrolysis
1
Mentioned deposition of metallic magnesium or aluminium does not work, unless it is molten salt, or there is a mercury cathode.
Opposite potentials are for the mutually opposite half reactions. Water oxidation and water reduction are not the opposite half reactions. Oxidation of $\ce{H2O}$ to $\ce{O2}$ is not the opposite to reduction of $\ce{H2O}$ to $\ce{...
1
Some electrolysis experimets are best first performed and then an attempt at explanation.
For example, the products of the electrolysis of aqueous nickel nitrate with graphite electrodes are reportedly per a source (with video) as:
Electrolysis of a nickel nitrate solution produces oxygen at the anode, and hydrogen and nickel at the cathode.
Looking at ...
1
Small and/or highly charged ions tend to be highly solvated in water. These solvated ions may still be smaller than the solvated ions of larger ions.
However, water molecules are not as free as the molecules of a gas. Water has a much higher viscosity, for instance. So think of water as a loose gel. A large (unsolvated, or poorly solvated) ion has an easier ...
3
I guess the misunderstanding arises from the fact that you treat $n$ as the same entity as the lowest common multiple (LCM) used to balance the net equation using half-reactions for the electrolysis of molten aluminium(III) oxide:
$$
\begin{align}
&\text{cathode:} &\ce{Al^3+(melt) + 3 e- &-> Al^0(l)} &|\cdot4\tag{red}\\
&\text{anode:} &...
-2
This seems to be a thought experiment, and many factors have been considered, but not enough to correspond to reality.
One item to consider is that copper is electrolytically purified by psssing current between a thin cathode of pure copper and a thick cathode of impure copper. An electrical power supply drives the copper (in solution) from the anode (+) to ...
-2
If you heat metallic sodium with let’s say gold / silver / mercury / platinum etc.. it will form an amalgam.
I have tried this with a tiny bit of gold some years ago.
I did heat Na in an inert argon atmosphere to several hundred degrees in an quartz tube and drop the gold inside.
It did take only fractions of a second till the amalgam was formed.
The result ...
1
If there is no bridge in a voltaic cell, this will be no cell any more. The arrangement will just be a metallic connection between two different containers. It will not deliver any continuous current. And replacing the salt bridge by a wire will simply add a second metallic connection between the solutions. There will be two parallel but different metallic ...
0
To quote an educational source:
Water is the enabler of fast oxidation of iron so freshwater will also cause rust. However, salt water is a very good conductor (lots of dissociated ions) and so there are a number of electrolysis reactions that tremendously accelerate corrosion in salt water.
which means, in essence, that aqueous NaCl is a good ...
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