Electrolytic Cell - Video Tutorials & Practice Problems
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concept
The Electrolytic Cell
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So an electrolytic cell is our second type of electrochemical cell here. Now, an electrolytic cell represents a non spontaneous cell that utilizes electrolysis in order to operate common examples, everyday common examples of electrolytic cells would be lithium batteries or rechargeable batteries. Now, electrolysis itself, this is where chemical reactions uh that consume external electrical energy in order to occur. Remember, a spontaneous reaction does not happen naturally. It needs some outside energy source to occur. Now, this is important no matter the cell, whether it be spontaneous, which is our galvanic slash voltaic cell or non spontaneous, which is our electrolytic cell. The cathode is always the site of reduction and the a node is always the site of oxidation that cannot change doesn't matter what type of electrochemical cell you're dealing with. This is always true. We're gonna say cathode equals reduction and we're gonna say a node equals oxidation.
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example
Electrolytic Cell Example
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In a galvanic cell, the acceptance of an electron occurs at the. So if we're accepting an electron, that means that's reduction reduction occurs at the cathode. And in an electrolytic cell, it occurs at the blank. So remember it doesn't matter. The type of electrochemical cell, whether it be galvanic voltaic or electrolytic reduction always occurs at the cam and oxidation always occurs at the anna. In this case, the answer is a it's reduction. So it's gonna recur it's gonna occur at the cathode for either one of these types of electrochemical cells.
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concept
Electrolytic Cell Components
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Now, electrolytic cells use the same major components as galvanic cells but still possess some key differences. Key difference. Number one is that an electrolytic cell consumes electricity and requires a battery to drive the reaction forward. So a galvanic cell produces electricity. And so it has a vault meter which reads the amount of electricity generated an electrolytic one, it consumes electricity. So it requires an actual battery to drive the reaction forward. Key difference number two, it uses stored electrical energy. The energy found like in this battery and converts it into chemical energy so that it can create a redox reaction that really doesn't wanna occur, doesn't want to occur because that's our key difference. Number three, the process is non spontaneous. And because of this, the cathode is negatively charged and the ade is positively charged. So if we take a look here again, our cathode is negative, our cathode, our ade is positive but the a node is still losing electrons giving them to the catho but negative electrons don't wanna go to a electrode that's negative like charges repel. That's why we need a battery to supply the energy to force this non spontaneous process to occur. So here we still have our copper oxidized because oxidation is still occurring at the A node to copper two plus. So copper solid to copper two plus aqueous with the two electrons in the Catholic department, we still have reduction. So tin is reduced to tin solid. So tin two plus aqueous absorbs two electrons to become tin solid. We still have our salt bridge where the negative neutral ion moves towards the animal compartment to neutralize the build up of cation ions. In this case, copper two ions in solution, we still have the positive ions moving over to this way building up a little bit here to help keep driving the electrons over to the cathode side. Here. Our overall reaction after we cancel out, our intermediate electrons comes out to be copper solid plus 10, 2 aqueous gives me copper two plus aqueous watch tin. So, so there are some things that are the same. But these are the key differences you need to keep in mind when dealing with an electrolytic cell.
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example
Electrolytic Cell Example
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Which of the following is true about an electrolytic cell. So here it has a positive cat. Remember for an electrolytic cell, the cathode is no longer positive. It's negatively charged has no salt bridge. It still has salt bridge cathode plates out. Remember at the cathode, we still have reduction occurring. So yes, we still have the plating out of our cathode has a negative A node. Nope, the A node now is positively charged. So there are some key differences between an electrolytic cell and a galvanic cell. But one thing that remains the same is that the A node is the site of oxidation. So the A node dissolves away and the cathode is a site of reduction, the cathode plates out. So keep that in mind when, when you're looking at an electrolytic cell or galvanic cell that remains the same for both.
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concept
Electrolytic Cells and Spontaneity
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Here, we're going to say that an electrolytic cell uses non spontaneous reactions. And as a result of this, it's consuming electricity. Now, all non spontaneous redox reactions have a negative standard cell potential value. So if we're talking about an electrolytic cell, remember it's non spontaneous. Here, it can, we can relate this idea to other variables. Gives free energy entropy, our equilibrium constant and our reaction quotient Q besides our standard cell potential. So here to be non spontaneous, the change in our standard gifts free energy would have to be greater than zero for changing our standard entropy of the universe or total. It'd be less than zero K would have to be less than one. He would also be less than Q. And again, we said negative standard cell potential. So here to be negative, it had to be less than zero. So these are the relationships that we can talk about when it comes to an electrolytic cell and spontaneity when it comes to these different types of variables.
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example
Electrolytic Cell Example
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Here it says if the standard cell potential which is E knot sub cell for the given redox reaction is negative 0.54 volts, which of the following statements is true, right? So here our standard cell potential is less than zero, which means that we are non spontaneous, the re redox reaction will have an equilibrium constant value. That is greater than one. No. If we're non spontaneous, it should be less than one. The redox reaction will produce electricity. If you are non spontaneous, you will consume electricity, not produce it. C is correct because here, since we're non spontaneous, your equilibrium constant case should be less than one. And then here the red do uh well, the reaction po will be less than the equilibrium constant. Remember if K is greater than Q, then you're not, you're, you're spontaneous, not non spontaneous. OK. So this would be spontaneous, which is not the case in this question. So C would be our answer. OK. All the other things would only be true if we were spontaneous. But since our standard equilibrium, since our standard cell potential is less than zero, we are non spontaneous.
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Problem
Problem
If the overall redox reaction for an electrolytic cell is given below, what will happen to the mass of the cobalt electrode?
Co2+ (aq) + Cu (s) ⇌ Co (s) + Cu2+(aq)
A
Its mass will increase.
B
Its mass will decrease.
C
Its mass will remain constant.
D
Not enough information is given.
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