Suppose that you carefully weigh pieces of zinc and copper metal and construct a voltaic cell. After allowing the current to flow for some time, you carefully dry the pieces of metal and weigh them again. Do the pieces of metal have the same mass before and after the experiment? If not, which piece of metal gained mass, and which piece of metal lost mass? Explain your reasoning.

Question

Arielle Meadows

Chemistry

19 September, 22:44

Suppose that you carefully weigh pieces of zinc and copper metal and construct a voltaic cell. After allowing the current to flow for some time, you carefully dry the pieces of metal and weigh them again. Do the pieces of metal have the same mass before and after the experiment? If not, which piece of metal gained mass, and which piece of metal lost mass? Explain your reasoning.

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Answers (1)

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Sarai Kirby · Answer 1

No, the copper metal weighs more

Explanation:

When the electrochemical cell is set up, zinc will function as the oxidation half cell (anode) while copper will function as the reduction half cell (cathode).

The cathode increases in size due to deposition of the anode metal on the cathode rod. Hence copper (the cathode) will be heavier in size while the anode zinc will be lighter and smaller in size than the cathode.