How does electrolysis with water work?

1.77K views

Just wanted to know

In: Chemistry

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Oxygen is very electronegative, which means that when it is paired with another atom bonded covalently and those atoms are sharing electrons, the electrons tend to spend more time around the oxygen than they do around those other atoms. This is especially true of hydrogen, which has very weak electronegativity.

Because of this, the end of the water molecule with the oxygen on it tends to be far more negative than the end with the two hydrogen’s, which tends to be comparatively positive.

Running an electrical current through water pulls on that bond magnetically, and it is capable of breaking the bond, at which point the oxygen will hold on to the two electrons that the two hydrogen atoms brought to the equation. This turns that oxygen into a negative ion and gives it an overall negative charge, and gives the hydrogen ions positive charges.

At that point, the oxygen rushes towards the positive electrode because it is negative, and the hydrogen rushes towards the negative electrode because it is positive.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Water can be separated into Hydrogen and Oxygen ions by electricity since these ions have different charges.