Electrolysis is a special physicochemical process in which a liquid, or, in other words, an electrolyte, decomposes into positive and negative ions. This happens under the influence of electric current. How does this process proceed?
Electrolysis of water occurs due to the fact that an electric current passing through the electrolyte causes a reaction on the electrodes, on which positive and negative ions settle. Cations are deposited on a negatively charged electrode (cathode), and anions, respectively, on a positive (anode). The electrolyte may consist of water, in which acid is added or is a solution of salts. The decomposition of salts into metal and acid residue occurs after an electric current is passed through the electrolyte. A metal charged with positive electricity approaches the cathode (negatively charged electrode), and this metal is called the cation. An acid residue, negatively charged, tends to the anode (positively charged electrode), and is called an anion. Electrolysis makes it possible to obtain well-purified elements from salts, which is why it is widely used in various branches of modern industry.
Electrolysis of water is vital today, when thousands of enterprises use water for individual stages of their production. This is explained by the fact that after most of the processes that are carried out at enterprises, the water after use turns into a liquid dangerous to people and wildlife. Water electrolysis is used to treat wastewater, which should not fall into the ground or into sources of clean water. These wastewater must be treated in order to prevent an environmental disaster, the risk of which is already quite high in many regions of Russia.
Today, there are several methods of electrolysis of water. These include electroextraction, electrocoagulation and electroflotation. The electrolysis of water used for wastewater treatment is carried out in electrolyzers. These are special facilities in which organic substances decompose into metals, acids and other substances belonging to the category of inorganic origin. It is especially important to carry out wastewater treatment in hazardous industries, such as chemical enterprises, where work is carried out with copper and lead, as well as in factories that produce paints, varnishes, enamels. Of course, this is not a cheap way to purify water using electrolysis, but the costs associated with water purification can not be compared with human health and concern for the environment.
An interesting fact, but you can carry out electrolysis of water at home. This process does not take much time and money and will provide an opportunity to produce oxygen and hydrogen. Two electrodes are lowered into a container with water in which salt has been previously dissolved (salt must be taken at least ¼ of the volume of water). They can be made of any metal. The electrodes are connected to a power source with a current strength of at least 0.5 A. Bubbles form on one of the electrodes, which indicates that the electrolysis of water at home is successful. In this way you can get caustic sodium, chlorine and other chemical elements, depending on what the electrolyte consists of. Plasma electrolysis of water is used in plasma heaters. This is the latest modern device operating in the plasma electrolysis of water and its direct heating to certain temperatures. Plasma electrolysis of water makes it possible to obtain new types of energy, which every day more and more needs humanity. The energy that can be obtained from water will make it possible to create new, safe and effective types of energy sources. The phenomena of plasma electrolysis of water have not yet been fully studied, but they have great prospects and are therefore intensively studied by modern scientists.