Explain the process of elecboplating
ison object
with copper metal
Lalong with the circut oligram).
an
Answers
Answer:
Electroplating is the process of depositing a layer of a metal on a metallic or a nonmetallic electrode by electrolysis in an electrolytic cell.
Let us take an iron spoon which is to be electroplated with copper. For this, we take a copper plate and an iron spoon as electrodes and copper sulphate (CuSO
4
) is taken as an electrolyte. The electrodes are connected through an external circuit as shown in figure. On passing current through the electrolyte, it is decomposed into Cu
2+
and (SO
4
)
2−
ions.
As Cu
2+
ion is positively charged, it moves towards the negative terminal i.e. iron spoon and gets deposited on it. Thus, iron spoon gets plated with copper. There is no scarcity of Cu atoms because the copper atoms go into the solution from the positive terminal i.e. copper plate. This process called electroplating continues until the iron spoon gets coated with copper.
solution
For electroplating an iron object with copper metal :
The iron object is made negative electrode that is cathode. This means that the iron object is connected to the negative terminal of the battery.
A copper plate is made positive electrode that is anode. ...
Copper sulphate solution is taken as electrolyte.
Take 250 ml of distilled water in a clean beaker dissolved to tablespoons of copper sulphate in it. This will give us a blue coloured copper sulphate solution. Add a few drops of dilute sulphuric acid to copper sulphate solution to make it more conducting.Take a copper plate of about 10 cm * 4 cm size and a door key made of iron. Clean the surface of copper plate and iron key by rubbing with Sandpaper. Then wash them with water and dry them.
1)Immerse the cleaned copper plate in the copper sulphate solution in the beaker. Connect the copper plates to the positive terminal of a battery through a switch. This copper plate becomes the positive electrode or anode.
2)Immerse the clean iron key also in copper sulphate solution at a small distance from the copper plate. Connect the negative terminal of the battery to the iron key. This iron key becomes the negative electrode.
3)Switch on the electric current by closing the switch. Allows the current to pass for about 15 minutes.
4)Remove the copper plate and iron key from the copper sulphate solution and look at them carefully. We will find that the copper plate has dissolved a little and the iron key has got a reddish layer of copper metal all over its surface.Thus the iron key has been electroplated with copper.
The copper sulphate solution has copper metal in the dissolved form.The copper sulphate solution consists of free positively charged copper ions and negatively charged sulphate ions. when electric current is passed through copper sulphate solution ,then the following changes takes place :
1)The dissolved copper metal present in the copper sulphate solution as positively charged copper ions gets attracted to the negatively charged electrode iron key. The positively charged copper ions lose their positive charge on coming in contact with the negatively charged Ion key and from copper atoms.These copper atoms deposit on the iron key to form a thin layer of copper metal all over the surface of iron key.In this way, copper metal in the electrolyte comes out of the solution and forms a thin layer on the iron key.
2)The copper metal of positively charged copper plate electrode dissolves by forming positively charged copper ions.The copper ions thus formed go into the copper sulphate solution. In this way the loss of copper ions from copper sulphate solution is made up and the process continues. Since the copper ions are taken out from the solution at the negative electrode but put into solution at the positive electrode therefore the concentration of copper sulphate solution remains constant.
During copper plating of an iron key, copper metal is transferred from the copper plate to the iron key through the copper sulphate solution.During electroplating with copper, copper metal gets transferred from positive electrode to the negative electrode
