Reference no: EM131552755

Question: Michael Faraday was a consummate experimentalist. In his earliest studies of electrolysis, he used the volume of gas evolved by the decomposition of water as a measure of the amount of electricity (total charge) passing through his electrolysis cells. Figure illustrates an experiment to study the electrolysis of tin chloride (SnCl₂). Two platinum electrodes are immersed in a molten bath of SnCl₂ and connected in series with a second cell containing a weak solution of sulfuric acid in water. (Because the cells are connected in series, the same current flows through each cell.) In the reaction, gaseous Cl₂ is evolved at one electrode, and solid (metallic) Sn is plated onto the second electrode. Faraday measured the mass of the Sn and the volumes of the H₂ and O₂ evolved in the water cell.
Faraday stopped the experiment when the total volume of H2 and O2 equaled 63.1 cm³, and found that 0.207 gm of Sn had been deposited.

a. What volume of H₂ was evolved? Assuming standard temperature and pressure, what fraction of a mole is this? (The overall reaction is 2H₂O → 2H₂ + O₂.)

b. What reactions are occurring at the two electrodes in the SnCl₂ cell? What fraction of a mole of Sn is deposited?

c. From Faraday's numbers, find the atomic weight of Sn.

d. If the Cl₂ gas had been collected, what would its volume have been?

Fig. - An arrangement for studyimg the electrolysis of SnCl_2.