Electrolysis Lesson 2: Electrolysis Basics

In this video, you are shown the basics behind the electrolysis of a molten ionic substance.

The summary points are:

1. Positive ions (cations) are attracted to the negative electrode

2. Negative ions (anions) are attracted to the positive electrode

3. At an electrode (charged) ions always loose or gain electrons to become (neutral) atoms

4. Watch out for diatomic elements; their atoms always join together to make X2 molecules. The diatomic elements are hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, chlorine, bromine and iodine.

This video goes through similar material, but involves a real experiment and has several useful animations:    • GCSE Science Revision   Electrolysis ...  

The next video in this series looks at how to write 'half-equations'.