Molten-salt electrolysis

The electrolysis of molten sodium chloride to obtain chlorine and sodium, which can be used to produce sodium hydroxide, is an important industrial-scale process. The experiment is a simple demonstration of the important steps in this process. Due to the high melting point of sodium chloride, lead chloride (with a lower melting point) is used as starting material in the model experiment (instead of sodium chloride)

Tasks

Demonstration the electrolysis of molten sodium chloride to obtain chlorine and sodium.

What you can learn about

• Electrolysis
• Fused-salt electrolysis
• Preparation of Chlorine and sodium