Question

What happens on the cathode during the electrolysis of a copper (II) sulfate solution?

Answer 1

Electrolysis is a process in which the ionic compounds are going to dissociate into their respective ions by supplying electricity with the help of external sources. During electrolysis the formed ions will migrate towards the opposite charged electrodes.

Complete answer:
- In the question it is asked to write during the electrolysis of copper sulphate, at cathode what is going to occur.
- In the process of electrolysis the apparatus contains two electrodes, electrolyte and a battery.
- The electrodes are called anode and cathode.
- The cathode is negatively charged and the anode is positively charged.
- In the process of electrolysis of copper sulphate is going to dissociate in the following way.
$CuS{{O}_{4}}\to C{{u}^{2+}}+SO_{4}^{2-}$
- The copper (+2) is a cation and sulphate is an anion (-2).
- We know that cation is going to move towards cathode and anion is going to move towards anion.
-So, the formed copper (+2) ion is going to move towards the cathode and deposits on the cathode electrode.
- The following chemical reaction is going to occur at cathode during the process of electrolysis of copper sulphate.
$C{{u}^{2+}}+2{{e}^{-}}\to Cu$

Note:
The electrolysis is very useful in the process of electroplating of different materials. By using electrolysis we can form a coat metal layer on the surface of the base metal. The coat metal should be taken as anode and the base metal should be taken as cathode in the process of electroplating.