Processes and Products of Electrolysis — OCR GCSE Combined Science B J260
OCR GCSE Combined Science B · J260
Processes and Products of Electrolysis
What you need to know
Describe the overall process of electrolysis in terms of the specific ions present and the chemical reactions occurring at each electrode.
Predict the precise chemical products formed during the electrolysis of simple binary ionic compounds in their molten state.
Recall that positively charged metal or hydrogen ions are reduced at the cathode, while negatively charged non-metal ions are oxidized at the anode when using inert electrodes.
Write accurate half-equations demonstrating the conservation of mass and charge for common elements and compounds.
Explain oxidation and reduction explicitly in terms of electron loss or gain, correctly identifying the oxidized and reduced chemical species in a reaction.
Explain the application of electrolysis in the industrial extraction of reactive metals, particularly detailing the extraction of aluminium.
Describe competing reactions during the electrolysis of aqueous ionic solutions, predicting the formation of oxygen, chlorine, metals, or hydrogen based on relative reactivity trends.
Describe the practical experimental technique and apparatus required for conducting the electrolysis of an aqueous salt solution.
