Sodium Chloride Lab Report

In this research paper, I am going to investigate on how the concentration of Sodium Chloride (NaCl) solution affects the volume of the gases (Oxygen gas and Chlorine gas) at the anode during the electrolysis of sodium chloride solution. In my previous chemistry classes, I have learnt that concentration affects the majority of the gas produced at the anode. This made me wonder, how does the ratio of oxygen gas to chlorine gas produced at the anode vary at the electrodes. This made me formulate the research question: How does the concentration of Sodium Chloride solution affect the ratio of oxygen gas to chlorine gas produced at the anode during the electrolysis of Sodium Chloride solution? This area specifically interests me because it is still

In electrolysis, current flows through a molten ionic compound or an ionic solution because both of them contain free mobile ions that can move around and gain or loose electrons. Covalent compounds can not be used in electrolysis because they contain molecules which are neutral (while ions are charged) hence they can not be discharched at the electrodes as they don’t gain or lose electrons at the electrons due to their neutral charge. For electrolysis: a current source, electrodes and an electrolyte is needed. Electrodes are the conductors of electricity that are in contact with the non-metallic part of the circuit (which in this case is the solution) (Bylikin & Horner, 2014). There are two types of electrodes: anode and cathode which are positively and negatively charged respectively. An electrolyte is a liquid or solution that can carry an electric current through it (BBC Bitesize). In solid form, sodium chloride can’t be electrolyzed as the ions are held and arranged in a lattice structure hence the ions are not mobile enough to move around. However, when solid sodium

First of all, the apparatus has to be chosen that would collect the gases produced at the anode hence Hofmann Voltameter was chosen to carry out the electrolysis in. Second of all, I had to come up with a method to separate oxygen and chlorine gas. Since both of them are gases it became very hard to come up with a method, hence I researched on the characteristics of both gases. I found out that chlorine is soluble in water while oxygen is not soluble in water. 5.8g of chlorine gas dissolves in 1kg of water at 30ºC (The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 2013) and 40mg of oxygen gas is soluble in 1kg of water at 25ºC (Lenntech,