Hello, welcome to my blog. This blog will contain information about electrolysis and refining copper by electrolysis.

What is a method of extracting metals? One way of extracting metals from its ore can be electrolysis. What is electrolysis and how does it work?

The metal or ore i have selected is copper. Copper in it's ore will be a blue or green colour. Copper is needed in our society because it is in almost every electronic device we use. Copper is put into wires, computer chips and in engines. Without it our phones, cars and electrical household appliances wouldn't work. Copper can be found throughout Australian mines like Mount Morgan Mines, Mount Isa Mines and Telfer Mines.
Name: Copper
Symbol: Cu
Atomic Number: 29
Element Category: Transition Metal
Substance: Solid
Extracted From: Sulfate Ore and Chalcopyrite

Electrolytic refining is a process of getting pure metal by the process of electrolysis. In the procedure an electric current is passed through a solution called electrolyte that contain dissolved metals. This cause the dissolved metal to stay on the negatively charged cathode. Take a copper ore or impure copper which is the anode and pure copper as cathode, with there put it in a cell containing acidified solution of copper sulphate as electrolyte. When you send an electric current through the electrolyte, you can see that the copper from the impure copper anode dissolves in the solution as CU 2 plus ions. These ions changes to copper when it reaches the cathode and deposits on it.

Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper
http://www.australianminesatlas.gov.au/education/fact_sheets/copper.html
http://www2.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php (Voice Over)
google images.
textbook
www.lasallesciencemisschui.blogspot.com.au (Reference)