Explain Faraday's Laws of Electrolysis.
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Answer:
Faraday’s laws of electrolysis, in chemistry, quantitative laws used to express magnitudes of electrolytic effects, first described by the English scientist Michael Faraday in 1833. The laws state that (1) the amount of chemical change produced by current at an electrode-electrolyte boundary is proportional to the quantity of electricity used, and (2) the amounts of chemical changes produced by the same quantity of electricity in different substances are proportional to their equivalent weights. In electrolytic reactions, the equivalent weight of a substance is the gram formula weight associated with a unit gain or loss of electron. The quantity of electricity that will cause a chemical change of one equivalent weight unit has been designated a faraday. It is equivalent to 9.6485309 × 104 coulombs of electricity. Thus, in the electrolysis of fused magnesium chloride, MgCl2, one faraday of electricity will deposit 24.312/2 grams of magnesium at the negative electrode and liberate 35.453 grams of chlorine at the positive electrode.
Faraday's first law of electrolysis
It states, during electrolysis, the amount of chemical energy which occurs at any electrode under the influence of electrical energy is proportional to the quantity of electricity passed through the electrolyte.
OR
It states that the quantity of reaction taking place in terms of mass and ions formed or discharged from an electrolyte is proportional to the amount of electric current passed.
Since electric current (ampere) is the number of coulombs(Q) flowing in one second,
Mass of ions formed or reacted (m) at electric current (Q)
m ∝ Q
m = ZQ
where Z is a proportionality constant, called chemical equivalent of the element.
Faraday's second law of electrolysis
During electrolysis, when the same quantity of electricity passes through the electrolytic solution several different substances liberated are proportional to their chemical equivalent weights (Equivalent weights is defined as the ratio of the atomic mass of the metals and the number of electrons required to reduce the cation.)
m ∝ E