Question

What is electrophoresis? Why is it shown by a certain type of solution?

Answer 1

Electrophoresis involves the movement of the colloidal particles i.e. the positively and the negatively charged particles towards the opposite electrodes respectively. Now with the help of this, you can easily define the electrophoresis.

Complete Solution :
- First of all, let’s discuss electrophoresis. By the electrophoresis, we mean the presence of the charge on the sol particles and its nature whether the sol is positively charged or negatively charged and the colloidal particles move towards the positively and negatively electrodes depending on the charge under the influence of the electrical field.
- In other words, we mean define electrophoresis as the phenomenon of the movement of the colloidal particles under the influence of the applied electric field.
- Example: If we take the sol of $A{{s}_{2}}{{S}_{3}}$, then the particles of the $A{{s}_{2}}{{S}_{3}}$ gets accumulated near the negative electrode and thus, this indicates that the particles are of $A{{s}_{2}}{{S}_{3}}$ are negatively charged and they move towards the oppositely charged i.e. positive electrode and accumulate there.
- So, thus, the electrophoresis is shown only by the solutions which consist of positively and negatively charged particles i.e. the colloids.

Note: Electrophoresis helps us to determine the sign carried by the sole particles i.e. by observing the direction of the movement of the colloidal particles, the sign of the charge carried by the particles can be easily known.