elementcollector1
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Electrolysis of salts in alcohols / non-water solvents?
What would be the electrolytic reactions for, say, pure isopropanol?
Is this a viable method towards electroplating or displacing some of the more reactive metals from their salts?
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weiming1998
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Quote: Originally posted by elementcollector1  | What would be the electrolytic reactions for, say, pure isopropanol?
Is this a viable method towards electroplating or displacing some of the more reactive metals from their salts? |
In non polar solvents, certainly not. They don't conduct electricity, and solutes dissolved in it isn't ionised. In protic solvents (like alcohol or
water), no, because the solvent self-ionises into H+ and its conjugate base. The H+ competes with the reactive metal to be reduced as H2 at the
cathode, yielding nothing but H2 gas.
In polar, aprotic solvents, possibly. In fact, electrolysis of LiCl in pyridine is a way of preparing lithium metal without doing a molten salt
electrolysis.
[Edited on 21-10-2012 by weiming1998]
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elementcollector1
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Does pyridine work for other metal chlorides, or just lithium?
Elements Collected:52/87
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blogfast25
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For hobbyists, electrolysis of salts in polar organic solvents is difficult to carry out. Both salts and solvents generally have to be bone dry and
that's hard to achieve/maintain in a 'home' setting.
Pyridine also smells terribly. I remember carrying out an acid/base titration with it as solvent (at Uni) and getting just a bit on my fingers:
horrible skunk like smell. And it ain't cheap either.
Here's a thread that gives some ideas about the difficulties:
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=1974
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