Faraday’s laws of electrolysis | Definition, Example, & Facts (2024)

Faraday’s laws of electrolysis, in chemistry, two quantitative laws used to express magnitudes of electrolytic effects, first described by the English scientist Michael Faraday in 1833. The laws state that (1) the amount of chemical change produced by current at an electrode-electrolyte boundary is proportional to the quantity of electricity used and (2) the amounts of chemical changes produced by the same quantity of electricity in different substances are proportional to their equivalent weights. In electrolytic reactions, the equivalent weight of a substance is the formula weight in grams associated with a gain or loss of an electron. (In substances with valences of two or more, the formula weight is divided by the valence.) The quantity of electricity that will cause a chemical change of one equivalent weight unit has been designated a faraday. It is equal to 96,485.3321233 coulombs of electricity. Thus, in the electrolysis of fused magnesium chloride, MgCl₂, one faraday of electricity will deposit 24.305/2 grams of magnesium at the negative electrode (since magnesium has an atomic weight of 24.305 and a valence of 2, meaning that it can gain two electrons) and liberate 35.453 grams of chlorine (since chlorine has an atomic weight of 35.453) at the positive electrode.