Electroplating

Question 1

What is electroplating?

Answer 1

It uses electrolysis to coat the surface of one metal with another metal

Question 2

What do you put at each electrode? Electrolyte?

Answer 2

The -ve electrode is the metal object you want to plate
The +ve electrode is the pure metal you want it to be plated with
You also need an electrolyte to contain ions if the plating metal (The ions that plate the object come form the solutions while the +ve electrode keeps the solution ‘topped up’)

Question 3

What are the uses of electroplating?

Answer 3

1) Decoration: Silver is attractive but very expensive. It’s much cheaper to plate a brass object with silver, than it is to make the cup out of solid silver
2) Conduction: Metals like copper conduct electricity well - because of this they’re often used to plate metals for electronic circuits + computers