Help me understand Electrolysis, Please?

[SKA]

Hi precious nexians,

I've been increasingly fascinated by the process of Electrolysis. Can't go into too much depth as to why, for
that would be a topic on it's own.

I have a rudimentairy understanding of the physics involved, but I would like to learn more in detail what exactly
happens on an atomic level during electrolysis. I've read about electrolysis on Wikipedia off course, but didn't
find a very refined explanation of the atomic physics involved.

I know for instance that water molecules consist of 2 Hydrogen atoms bound to 1 Oxygen atom.
A container of water with a cathode & an anode to run a current through the water, can appearantly
break the atomic bonds between the 2 Hydrogen atoms & the single Oxygen atom.
In other Electrolysis processes the Cathode and Anode each have their own, separate
electrolyte-containers so the products released in the process do not interact and cause
unwanted reactions. This is what I've understood of Electrolysis so far.

But what I would like to learn is; What exactly bonds 2 or more Atoms together?
And how exactly does an Electric Current Break/Disturb these Inter-Atomic bonds?
Does it have anything to do with Electromagnetic fields? Are specific frequencies
involved in the bonding of specific pairs of atoms?

As you can see I'm full of questions and very eager to learn more.
Would anyone here be so knowledgable and kind to explain this to me?

 

[InMotion]

Are you interested in the physics or the chemistry? The physics has several theories for the explanation of atom's and how they interact with one another. The current favored flavor is Density Functional Theory if I recall correctly(something I know nothing about). Many Physical Chemists use electrolysis for experiments, so Physical Chemistry is the realm you are looking for(I think?).

I only have a surface level understanding of such things. I can be a reductionist and try and answer some of these

Well you ask what bonds two atom's together. To be very brief, electrons do. Notice the key-fragment "Electr" . There are many kinds of atomic bonds. In general we have Covalent and Ionic(some bonds fall into a grey area between the two). Covalent(sigma and pi bonds) for organic molecules and Ionic for ionic compounds(very strong ionic bonds).

How does Electricity disturb or break these bonds? Well, I can't tell you exactly how, not sure if anyone really can. This little article may lend a tiny but more insight, http://www.ibchem.com/faq/?p=8. In general we look at oxidation/redox reactions as depicted here, http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/topicreview/bp/ch20/electro.php#half .

Does this involve a Magnetic Field? Not really sure, but here's an experiment that might lend some insight at least situationally http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jp010581u .


What you are describing in general with the two electrolye containers is called a half-cell. Where two containers are seperated by a semi-permeable membrane such as a salt-bridge. The reason for the two containers being separated is a thermodynamics one. By separating the two cell's we generate more energy by form of Work.

Sometimes experiments are done in what are called 'earthen-ware' containers in older literature, which to my understanding is just a semi-porous flower-pot like container.

I know a bit more on this topic, FAR from an expert but it also highly interests me!

 

[SKA]

Thx for the swift reply and the links!

I became more & more fascinated with Electrolysis seeing off course it's great potential for being a component of a
sustainable energy system. Then I started wondering if Electrolytic Cells could be finetuned to break only CERTAIN
atomic bonds, while leaving others intact; This way it may just be alot easier a way to reduce certain, complex tryptamines
back into simpler, psychoactive tryptamines.
But to explore the possibilities I'd need to know alot more of the basic principles at work during Electrolysis.

For instance; Is it so that, because some Atoms have more Electrons in their orbit than others, they can make stronger
bonds that require more energy-input to break?

Lately I feel the compulsive need to experiment with feeding power into psychoactive material. I cannot really reason why(yet).
Sheer curiousity & some intuitive drive I suppose.

I'll check out the links you posted. You already know more than me about atomic bonds so your input was very helpfull.
I'll also try to pick up a chemistry & physics for dummies-book if I find one.
Any E-books about this subject you know of, do share them here.
Off course if there are any professionals out here who can teach me & InMotion alot more, please do.