eguruchela

Electrolysis and law of electrolysis


Before understanding Faraday's laws of electrolysis, we have to recall the process of electrolysis of a metal sulfate. Whenever an electrolyte like metal sulfate is diluted in water, its molecules split into positive and negative ions. The positive ions or metal ions move to the electrodes connected with negative terminal of the battery where these positive ions take electrons from it, become pure metal atom and get deposited on the electrode.

Faraday's First Law of Electrolysis

The mass of any substance deposited or dissolved at any electrode during electrolysis is directly proportional to the quantity of electricity passed through the solution.

Mathematically, if W gram of any material gets deposited or dissolved when Q coulombs of electricity is passed, then

WμQ

But Q = I x t

Faraday's Second Law

According to this law, “if same quantity of electricity is passed through different electrolytes, then the amount of substances liberated at the respective of electrodes are in the ratio of their equivalent masses”.

Chemical Equvalant = Atomic Weight / Valency