Science Investigation Report - Aim To investigate how the voltage of the electric current would affect the rate at which a metal is electroplated.

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SSIS GCSE Programme

Science Investigation Report

Investigating Electroplating

Name: Kimberly Hoong Yearn Yi

Class: S4 Ruby

        

Aim

To investigate how the voltage of the electric current would affect the rate at which a metal is electroplated.

Hypothesis

If the voltage of the current supplied for electroplating is increased, then the mass of the copper metal deposited on the paper clip would also increase.

In electroplating, the anode is the copper metal piece and the cathode is the paper clip. The electrons travel from the negative terminal to the positive terminal, hence allowing the paper clip in the negative terminal to be electroplated. When plating the paper clip with copper, the copper metal piece undergoes oxidation while the cathode undergoes reduction, where:

Anode (Copper Metal Piece): Cu(s)  Cu2+(aq) + 2e-

Cathode (Paper Clip): Cu2+(aq) + 2e- Cu(s)

This happens through the flow of electrons in the circuit. When time taken for electroplating to occur is kept constant, the rate of electroplating would depend on the voltage of the electric current. From this formula:

Q = It

(Charge = Current x Time)

If the time remains constant, only the current would affect the charge of the electricity flowing through the circuit. This then leads to another formula:

V = IR

(Voltage = Current x Resistance)

One can deduce that if the resistance of the circuit stays the same, the voltage of the electric current would be the only factor affecting the current. This would mean that when the voltage of the electric power supply increases, the electric current would also increase proportionately. As the current increases, the charge of the electricity would also increase, causing meaning that the flow of electrons in the circuit would also be faster. If the flow of the electrons is faster, it would mean that the rate of electroplating would also increase within a fixed amount of time. Therefore, as the voltage from the power supply increases, the mass of the copper deposited on the paper clip would also increase.

Variables

Independent Variable:

 Voltage of the electric current – The voltage of the electric current will be altered through the 30V power supply. For each set of data, the voltage will increase by 2V each time. As the voltage of the electric current increase, the mass of the copper deposited on the paper clip will also increase.

Dependent Variable:

 Mass of the copper deposited on the paper clip – The mass of the copper deposited on the paper clip will depend on what the voltage of the electric current will be. As the voltage of the electric current increases, the mass of the copper deposited will increase, decrease or stay the same. This is measured through subtracting the final mass of the electroplated paper clip from the initial mass of the paper clip before electroplating, with units in g.

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Controlled Variables:

 Time taken for electroplating – The time taken for the paper clip to be electroplated should remain the same, as if the time changes, the charge of the electric current would be affected, causing the results to be invalid as only the current is supposed to be the only factor affecting the charge of the electric current. If the charge of the electric current is affected, the mass of copper deposited on the paper clip will also be affected; therefore it must remain the same throughout the experiment. The time will be measured using a stopwatch, ...

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