Question

A student wants to electroplate a piece of copper with silver in an electrochemical cell. If a current of 0.5 A is passed through the cell for 30 minutes, what mass of silver will be deposited on the copper piece? The atomic mass of silver is 107.87 g/mol and the faraday constant is 96,485 C/mol.

Answer 1

To determine the mass of silver deposited on the copper piece, we can use Faraday's law of electrolysis. First, we need to calculate the total charge passed through the cell.Charge  Q  = Current  I   Time  t where I = 0.5 A and t = 30 minutes = 1800 secondsQ = 0.5 A  1800 s = 900 CoulombsNow, we can use Faraday's law to find the moles of silver deposited:Moles of silver  n  = Charge  Q  /  Faraday constant  F   number of electrons involved in the redox reaction For silver, the redox reaction is Ag+ + e-  Ag, so the number of electrons involved is 1.n = 900 C /  96,485 C/mol  1  = 0.00933 molNow, we can calculate the mass of silver deposited:Mass of silver = Moles of silver  Atomic mass of silverMass of silver = 0.00933 mol  107.87 g/mol = 1.006 gTherefore, the mass of silver deposited on the copper piece is approximately 1.006 grams.