Electrolysis - study the effect of current upon the mass of nickel deposited at the cathode.

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(MB) Set 1                30/04/07

Electrolysis

Prediction

I have decided to study the effect of current upon the mass of nickel deposited at the cathode.

I think that as you increase the current the mass of nickel deposited at the cathode will increase in proportion.  Also that the mass loss at the anode will be equal to the mass gained at the cathode.

Obtaining

Any anomalous results I find I will not include in the calculation for the average.  I have highlighted any anomalous results.

After finding these averages I am going to calculate the theoretical values, these will show what mass of nickel should be lost at the anode and gained at the cathode in theory.  There is great room for error especially as the current increases because as the results become bigger there is more room for mistake.

The unit for ‘amount of charge’ is Coulombs

The amount of charge = current    time    

        (Coulombs)                        (Amps)      (sec)

We know that 193000 coulombs of charge gives us 59g of nickel.

Therefore to find 1 coulomb of charge we have to divide 59 by 193000.

We would then multiply that answer by what part of the experiment we know.  We know that each experiment was run for 20 minutes (1200 seconds) and we know how many amps we used.

E.g. 0.1    1200 = 120 Q

So: (59/193000)    120 Q

= 0.037g of nickel in theory should be lost on the anode and gained at the cathode.

0.2 Amps

  1. 1200 = 240 Q

So: (59/193000)    2400

=0.073g of nickel in theory should be lost on the anode and gained at the cathode.

0.4 Amps

 

  1. 1200 = 480 Q

So: (59/193000)    480 Q

= 0.147g of nickel in theory should be lost on the anode and gained at the cathode.

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0.6 Amps

  1. 1200 = 720 Q

So: (59/193000)    720 Q

= 0.220g of nickel in theory should be lost on the anode and gained at the cathode.

0.8 Amps

0.8    1200 = 960 Q

 

So: (59/193000)   960 Q

=0.2934g of nickel in theory should be lost on the anode and gained at the cathode.

In theory this results show how much should be lost at the anode and gained at the cathode.

My graph has shown me that the theoretical values were different to ...

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