For the Hall-Héroult process, how would you determine the two half-reactions (anode and cathode) which make up this process, complete with electrons? Also by balancing the half-cells and determining how the net-ionic equation is obtained?
1 Answer
Here's what I find.
The Hall–Héroult process involves the electrolysis of aluminium oxide in molten cryolite in a cell with graphite electrodes.
In the cell, the
The process reduces the aluminium ions to molten aluminium and oxidizes the graphite anodes to carbon dioxide.
To get the net ionic equation, we equalize the number of electrons transferred and add the two equations.