mmmm chlorine.

 

Ok, I'm a little confused about the whole electrolysis reaction. You can electrolize water, and you get hydrogen and oxygen (add a spark for fun). But when you add NaCl to the solution, do you get H2, O2, and Cl2 gases? and then the sodium by itself?

 

you get sodium hydroxide and H2 gas and Cl2 gas, the oxygen goes into the sodium hydroxide

 

there is no sodium metal produced....even if there was it would react with the water creating....sodium hydroxide.

 

you can add a little NaCl and still get some O2 but when you add more NaCl all or most of the oxygen goes into the sodium hydroxide

The first time I tried to make copper hydroxide I used a copper anode and a cotter pin probably zinc coated as the cathode. I added about a gram or two of baking soda as an electrolyte. I switched on the power supply and blue precipitate started forming at the anode and gas at the cathode. After about two or three hours of operation I had about a 2-3 centimeter layer of Cu(OH)2 on the bottom of the flask.

 

This was confirmed to be copper hydroxide by addition of sulfuric acid then immersing a piece of steel wool into the copper sulfate solution producing elemental copper.