Electrolysis is Literally Modern Alchemy

So today I learned a very cool thing about chemistry. If you melt down some salt and apply an electric current, it will turn the molten salt into sodium! The process is called electrolysis, and is one example of how chemistry is literally the modern form of alchemy. You can also do other things with electrolysis, such as taking water and breaking it down into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas.

[@DIGITALVHS]

So when chlorine is its anion it is called chloride. Chloride and sodium ions are what's behaving as the electrolytes. It's a nitpick I know, but an important distinction

[@RationalThinker118]

Hmm okay. Why don't they change the names for cations?

[@DIGITALVHS]

They do actually, oxonium, phosphonium, ammonium. We especially do this to denote different oxidation states of transition metal cations like cupric (copper II) and cuprous (copper I). I'm not precisely sure why we inconsistently change the name though, if I had to hazard a guess it's because most cations have the -ium suffix already, which denotes a metal (most of the time atleast). Following that logic, the classic understanding of ionic compounds is they're composed of a positively charged metal ion and negatively charged nonmetal ion. So it's possible that most cations already have their ion suffix attached.

[@RationalThinker118]

Thank you for informing me, I learned something new today!

[@Hypermonialascosisihypermonial]

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[@Hypermonialascosisihypermonial]

Have a good day 👍

[@Hypermonialascosisihypermonial]

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[@RationalThinker118]

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[@Hypermonialascosisihypermonial]

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[@giulioblandolino8223]

Beautiful video

[@rathnec]

Interesting video, but I didn't understand why you call it Alchemy!!

[@RationalThinker118]

Thanks! I called it modern alchemy because of the transformation of one substance into another. Of course chemistry isn't alchemy, but things like this show that chemistry is pretty close to it sometimes.