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In an electrochemical cell, why does the cathode gain mass?

I get that reduction happens at the cathode but I'm not exactly sure why/how it gains mass while the anode loses mass. Please explain!

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  • 9 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    The cathode(-) attracts cations(+) & anode(+) attracts anions(-). They are made of carbon.Metal ions are +ve so are attracted by cathode making its mass increase. Oxygen is -ve and is attracted by anode, reacting with the carbon to release carbon dioxide gas, thus decreasing in mass.

    For more details check electrolysis chapter in 'Federal Chemistry' book by Christopher N. Prescott or any other standard chemistry text books (there are many).

  • 6 years ago

    In electrochemical cells, electrons flow from the anode to the cathode. After the electrons reach the cathode, they sit there on the metal electrode until the ion to get reduced bumps into that electrode. When that happens, the reduction reaction takes place, and the ion turns into the metal, why the cathode gains mass. For example, if the half reaction you have at the cathode is Ag+ + 1e- --> Ag(s), then when the Ag+ ion in solution reacts with an electron on the cathode, the reaction takes place to create Silver, which adds on to the current mass.

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  • ?
    Lv 6
    9 years ago

    In fact at cathode cations go where they are changed to metals and thus deposited on the cathode increasing the mass, whereas at anode the anions when neutralized are gases and they escape thus no mass gain is observed at anode.

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