Chemical Effect of Electric Current

• Electric current is the flow of electric charge through a conductor
• All metallic elements have free electrons in the outermost orbit
• The flow of electrons from the negative terminal to the positive terminal in a closed circuit is known as electric current
• What is Electric current?

  The flow of electric charge through a conductor from the negative terminal to the positive terminal
• Conductors are materials that allow electricity to flow through them.
• Insulators are materials that do not allow the flow of electricity to pass through them.
• The ability of a material to conduct electricity or to allow the flow of electric charges is called electrical conductivity
• A liquid that is a good conductor of electricity is called and electrolyte
• A liquid that is incapably conducting of electricity is called a non-electrolyte
• The electric current in liquids is due the ions present in it
• A liquid has positively and negatively charged ions
• In an electrolytic cell, there are two electrodes, anode and cathode, connected by a wire
• When electric current is passed through an electrolyte it initiates a chemical reaction the splits the chemical compound into its constituent substances
• An electrolyte undergoes chemical changes due to the passage of electricity through it. This is called chemical effect of current
• The process by which an electrolyte splits into its constituents is called electrolysis
• The two plates or rods through which the current enters and leaves the electrolyte is called electrodes
• The current enters through the anode and leaves through the cathode
• Oxidation - Anode +ve

  Reduction - Cathode -ve
• A device which electrical energy is converted to chemical energy is called an electrolytic cell
• During electrolysis of water, Hydrogen bubbles are formed at the cathode while Oxygen bubbles are formed and the anode
• Electroplating is the process of deposition of a material on a different type of material by electrolysis
• The material to be coated is used as the cathode and the material the coating is to be obtained from is used as the anode
• If copper is used for coating another substance an electrolytic solution of copper ions should be kept in the electrolytic cell, the cations of copper ions will be attracted to the cathode where the object is placed and the object will be coated with copper