Textbook Focus 6O

[Anna Yakura 2F]

I realize this is a broad question but can anyone give me tips on how to approach the problems in this section? I feel like the lecture didn't cover electrolysis too much in depth so is there anything I need to keep in mind when solving these?

[IanWheeler3F]

I remember doing a lot more electrolysis in ap chem, one huge suggestion is know the conversions between charge, time, and current. For electroplating this big conversion is really helpful:
Current and Time <--> Quantity of charge <--> Moles of Electrons <--> Moles of substance oxidized/reduced <--> Grams of substance oxidized/reduced
The conversions for each double arrow are, in order: q=I*t, Faraday's constant, charge of the ion, molar mass of the substance

And if for electroplating they give a volume of metal you would need to know the density of that metal to get the grams

Also, when running a current through water for electrolysis reactions, you HAVE to figure out whether or not the species itself or the water itself is more likely to be oxidized/reduced. For example if you are doing an electrolysis of KCl solution and want to know if H2O or K+ is more likely to be reduced you compare their reduction potentials and you find that water is more likely to be reduced so K+ remains dissolved. And then for which is more likely to be oxidized you find that H2O is more likely than Cl- to be oxidized so really nothing happens except turning water into oxygen and hydrogen gases.

Overall, figure out what the question is asking, and WRITE the reactions and their Ered values asap so you know what youre working with

I know this is a lot but I hope this helps

[Juliet Carr 1F]

Going off of the information on the syllabus, I think the only sections we need to be worried about for focus 6O is 6O.1 which doesn't cover much in depth about electrolysis, only about electrolytic cells. Also the only problem listed on the syllabus for this section is problem 3 where we need to compare reduction potentials which is something we can use our knowledge about galvanic cells and reduction cell potentials to solve. So, I wouldn't be very worried about going in depth with electrolysis. Some differences between galvanic and electrolytic cells/ points about electrolytic cells that I thought were important to know and written in section 6O.1 are:
-Electrolytic cells have one electrolyte, the electrodes share a compartment, not usually in standard conditions, ions carry current through electrolyte
-The anode is positively charged (the electrons are being pulled by the anode from species being oxidized) and the cathode is negatively charged
-The current must be supplied by a power source
-The potential supplied to an electrolytic cell must be at least as great as that of the cell reaction to be reversed
-If there is more than one reducible species in solution, the species with the greater potential for reduction is reduced
-A real life example: a rechargeable battery is a galvanic cell when doing work and an electrolytic cell when being charged