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The Downs cell uses a carbon anode and an iron cathode.The electrolyte is sodium chloride that has been heated to the liquid state. Although solid sodium chloride is a poor conductor of electricity, when molten the sodium and chloride ions are mobilized, which become charge carriers and allow conduction of electric current.
In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a technique that uses direct electric current (DC) to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction. Electrolysis is commercially important as a stage in the separation of elements from naturally occurring sources such as ores using an electrolytic cell .
Important examples of electrolysis are the decomposition of water into hydrogen and oxygen, and of bauxite into aluminium and other chemicals. Electroplating (e.g. of Copper, Silver, Nickel or Chromium) is done using an electrolytic cell. Electrolysis is a technique that uses a direct electric current (DC). [citation needed]
Faraday discovered that when the same amount of electric current is passed through different electrolytes connected in series, the masses of the substances deposited or liberated at the electrodes are directly proportional to their respective chemical equivalent/equivalent weight (E). [3]
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The electrolysis can be done on a molten metal oxide (smelt electrolysis) which is used for example to produce aluminium from aluminium oxide via the Hall-Hérault process. Electrolysis can be used as a final refining stage in pyrometallurgical metal production (electrorefining) and it is also used for reduction of a metal from an aqueous metal ...
The exact relationship depends on the nature of the reactions at the two electrodes. For the electrolysis of aqueous copper(II) sulfate (CuSO 4) as an example, with Cu 2+ (aq) and SO 2− 4 (aq) ions, the cathode reaction is the reduction Cu 2+ (aq) + 2 e − → Cu(s) and the anode reaction is the corresponding oxidation of Cu to Cu 2+.
Electrolysis in an aqueous solution is a similar process as mentioned in electrolysis of water. However, it is considered to be a complex process because the contents in solution have to be analyzed in half reactions , whether reduced or oxidized.