Question

Which of the following is not an application of electrolysis?

• A. Obtaining metals like sodium and magnesium
• B. Making primary batteries
• C. Gold plating
• D. Synthesis of pure copper from impure copper

Answer 1

The correct option is B Making primary batteries

Making primary batteries is not an application of electrolysis.

Primary batteries are electrochemical cells and they exclusively involve only spontaneous cell reactions.

Electrolysis has wide applications in industries. Let us look at some of the important applications which are as follows:

(i) Production of hydrogen by electrolysis of water.
(ii) Manufacture of heavy water $D_{2}O$
(iii) The metals like Na, K, Mg, Al are obtained by electrolysis of fused electrolytes.
(iv) Non-metals like hydrogen, fluorine, chlorine are obtained by electrolysis.
(v) In this method pure metal is deposited at cathode from a solution containing the metal ions Ag, Cu etc
(vi) Compounds like NaOH, KOH, white lead, $KMn{O}_4$ etc are synthesised by electrolysis.
(vii) Electroplating: The process of coating an inferior metal with a superior metal by electrolysis is known as electroplating.