K12Chemistry
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Electrolysis of Copper Sulfate (Electrodes)
I am going to electrolyse copper sulfate to get copper metal and sulfuric acid. First time I used carbon and copper electrodes and it worked fine
except the carbon electrode eroded a lot and I had a significant amount of impurities in the sulfuric acid. This time I have a small piece of gold and
silver. Will the silver work in the electrolysis? I know that iron electrodes definitely don't work because it makes FeSO4. So I don't want to risk
losing the gold so will silver work or will it dissolve or what?
Thanks,
K12
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sankalpmittal
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Quote: Originally posted by K12Chemistry  | I am going to electrolyse copper sulfate to get copper metal and sulfuric acid. First time I used carbon and copper electrodes and it worked fine
except the carbon electrode eroded a lot and I had a significant amount of impurities in the sulfuric acid. This time I have a small piece of gold and
silver. Will the silver work in the electrolysis? I know that iron electrodes definitely don't work because it makes FeSO4. So I don't want to risk
losing the gold so will silver work or will it dissolve or what?
Thanks,
K12 |
Probably , silver being low in electrochemical series will be discharged first...
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IanCaio
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I tryied carbon once, but since I used those compass tips I had to change it from time to time, too much trouble, I didnt even finish electrolysing
everything.
Thing is, apart from carbon and platin, theres lead oxide electrodes that would work on this electrolysis, but they are really messy and toxic, so I
recomend you dont even try it.
If theres another alternative, cheaper then platin I would like to know too, because the only reason I'm not trying this experiment again is because I
dont want to bother having to change the electrodes everytime and cleaning the solution because of the carbon eroding.
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