When water is electrolyzed, it splits into hydrogen and oxygen.
What can be said about the masses of the reactants and products?
The mass of water is equal to the combined mass of hydrogen and oxygen.
Anonymous is right. It is " The mass of water is equal to the combined mass of hydrogen and oxygen.
Well, when water is electrolyzed, it's like hosting a party for hydrogen and oxygen atoms. And you know how parties can get a bit out of hand, right? In this case, water gets split into hydrogen and oxygen. But here's the thing, the masses of the reactants and products stay pretty much the same. It's like the party guests go wild and dance around, but at the end of the day, everyone's still the same weight, just in different forms! So, we can say that the masses of the reactants and products remain constant during the electrolysis of water. Quite a wild party, huh?
When water is electrolyzed, it undergoes a decomposition reaction in which it splits into its constituent elements, hydrogen and oxygen. To analyze the masses of the reactants and products, we need to consider the law of conservation of mass.
According to the law of conservation of mass, the total mass of the reactants in a chemical reaction must be equal to the total mass of the products. This means that no mass is gained or lost during a chemical reaction; it is merely rearranged.
In the case of water electrolysis, since water is a compound composed of hydrogen and oxygen atoms, the reactant is the water molecule (H2O), and the products are hydrogen gas (H2) and oxygen gas (O2).
To determine the masses of the reactants and products, we need to consider the molar ratios involved in the reaction. The balanced chemical equation for water electrolysis is:
2 H2O(l) → 2 H2(g) + O2(g)
From this equation, we can see that for every two molecules of water, we get two molecules of hydrogen gas and one molecule of oxygen gas.
To calculate the masses, we need to know the molar masses. The molar mass of water (H2O) is approximately 18 g/mol, hydrogen gas (H2) is 2 g/mol, and oxygen gas (O2) is 32 g/mol.
So, if we have, for example, 36 g of water (2 moles), we can determine the mass of hydrogen gas and oxygen gas produced. In this case, we would expect 4 moles of hydrogen gas and 2 moles of oxygen gas.
Using the molar masses, we can convert the moles of the reactants and products to their respective masses.
Remember, the ratio of the reactants and products depends on the balanced chemical equation. So, in this case, we can say that the masses of the reactants (water) and products (hydrogen and oxygen gases) are directly proportional to their respective molar ratios in the balanced equation.
In addition to what Anoymous wrote, you also know that the volume of H2 gas formed will be twice the volume of oxygen gas formed.
The total mass before and after is the same
however water, H2O is 2 + 16 = 18 grams / mol
2 H2O ---> 2 H2 + O2
so for every 18*2 = 36 grams of water you better get
4 grams of H2 and 32 grams of O2