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Green colored substances forming during electrolysis
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Michael Mombourquette
Green colored substances forming during electrolysis
@Bredget. If you don't know the nature of your electrodes, we cannot help you, because the greenish stuff is clearly coming from the electrodes, and not from the solution.
Now if you electrolyze a salt solution, you will first produce some bubbles of $\ce{H2}$ and some ions $\ce{OH-}$ at the cathode (negative pole). Simultaneously, you will produce a mixture of oxagen $\ce{O2}$ plus chlorine bubbles $\ce{Cl2}$ at the anode (positive pole). But this chlorine is rather corrosive. It will soon attack and dissolve any metal at the electrode. And it may also react with the $\ce{OH-}$ ions coming from the cathode, and produce the reaction $\ce{Cl2 + 2 OH- ->ClO^- + Cl- + H2O}$. So the solution contains more and more $\ce{ClO-}$ ions, which are powerful oxidizing agents.
@Bredget. If you don't know the nature of your electrodes, we cannot help you, because the greenish stuff is clearly coming from the electrodes, and not from the solution.Now if you electrolyze a salt solution, you will first produce some bubbles of $\ce{H2}$ and some ions $\ce{OH-}$ at the cathode (negative pole). Simultaneously, you will produce a mixture of oxagen $\ce{O2}$ plus chlorine bubbles $\ce{Cl2}$ at the anode (positive pole). But this chlorine is rather corrosive. It will soon attack and dissolve any metal at the electrode. And it may also react with the $\ce{OH-}$ ions coming from the cathode, and produce the reaction $\ce{Cl2 + 2 OH- ->ClO^- + Cl- + H2O}$. So the solution contains more and more $\ce{ClO-}$ ions, which are powerful oxidizing agents.
Yes ! Graphite will not produce any corrosion like copper or iron. Graphite will not be chemically destroyed. But it may be victim of a physical corrosion. A graphite electrode will slowly be piulverized, with graphite powder falling down to the bottom of the solution. The best choice is platinum, which is not corroded at all.More
@Bredget. If you don't know the nature of your electrodes, we cannot help you, because the greenish stuff is clearly coming from the electrodes, and not from the solution. Now if you electrolyze a salt solution, you will first produce some bubbles of $\ce{H2}$ and some ions $\ce{OH-}$ at the cathode (negative pole). Simultaneously, you will produce a mixture of oxagen $\ce{O2}$ plus chlorine bubbles $\ce{Cl2}$ at the anode (positive pole). But this chlorine is rather corrosive. It will soon attack and dissolve any metal at the electrode. And it may also react with the $\ce{OH-}$ ions coming from the cathode, and produce the reaction $\ce{Cl2 + 2 OH- ->ClO^- + Cl- + H2O}$. So the solution contains more and more $\ce{ClO-}$ ions, which are powerful oxidizing agents.
@Bredget. If you don't know the nature of your electrodes, we cannot help you, because the greenish stuff is clearly coming from the electrodes, and not from the solution.Now if you electrolyze a salt solution, you will first produce some bubbles of $\ce{H2}$ and some ions $\ce{OH-}$ at the cathode (negative pole). Simultaneously, you will produce a mixture of oxagen $\ce{O2}$ plus chlorine bubbles $\ce{Cl2}$ at the anode (positive pole). But this chlorine is rather corrosive. It will soon attack and dissolve any metal at the electrode. And it may also react with the $\ce{OH-}$ ions coming from the cathode, and produce the reaction $\ce{Cl2 + 2 OH- ->ClO^- + Cl- + H2O}$. So the solution contains more and more $\ce{ClO-}$ ions, which are powerful oxidizing agents.
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