Electrolysis is also a method of epilation. In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a method of separating bonded elements and compounds by passing an electric current through them.
Electrolysis is a chemical and electrical process. It occurs when two different metals are in contact, in the presence of a moist agent such as water. One of the metals is corroded away.
This can occur even in pure water. Immersed in this water are 2 plates, one of aluminium alloy, the other of cast iron. The atomic structure of aluminium means it loses electrons easily, leaving behind aluminium ions which are positively charged. Negative oxygen ions in the water are then attracted to the aluminium ions, and they join, to form deposits of aluminium oxide. As a result the aluminium alloy is eaten away, or corroded.
Overview
The source material is dissolved in an appropriate solvent, or melted, so that constituent ions are available in the solution. An electrical potential is applied across a pair of conductors immersed in the liquid. The negatively charged conductor is called the cathode, and the positively charged conductor is called the anode. Each conductor attracts the ions of the opposite charge. Therefore, positively charged ions (cations) move towards the cathode while negatively charged ions (anions) move to the anode. The energy required to separate the ions, and increase their concentration at the electrodes, is provided by an electrical power supply that maintains the potential difference across the electrodes. At the electrodes, electrons are absorbed or released by the ions, forming concentrations of the desired element or compound. For example, when water is electrolyzed, hydrogen gas (H2) will form at the cathode, and oxygen gas (O2) at the anode. This was first discovered by William Nicholson, an English chemist, in 1800.
The amount of electric energy that must be added equals the change in Gibbs free energy of the reaction plus the losses in the system. The losses can (theoretically) be arbitrarily close to zero, so the maximum thermodynamic efficiency equals the enthalpy change divided by the free energy change of the reaction. In most cases the electric input is larger than the enthalpy change of the reaction, so some energy is released in the form of heat. In some cases, for instance in the electrolysis of steam into hydrogen and oxygen at high temperature, the opposite is true. Heat is absorbed from the surroundings, and the heating value of the produced hydrogen is higher than the electric input. In this case the efficiency can be said to be greater than 100%. (It is worth noting that the maximum theoretic efficiency of a fuel cell is the inverse of that of electrolysis. It is thus impossible to create a perpetual motion machine by combining the two processes.)
The following technologies are related to electrolysis:
Source: Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org & CDX Global
