Electrolysis time calculator
Plan how long the current has to flow, since depositing 1 g of copper at 1.5 A takes just over half an hour. Enter the target mass, current, molar mass and electrons to get the time, the charge that will pass and the moles involved. Free in your browser.
- Free
- Runs in your browser
- No sign-up
- Your data stays on your device
Run — free
Worked example
- Mass
- 1
- Current
- 1.5
- Molar mass
- 63.546
- Electrons
- 2
- Mass g
- 1
- Time
- 2,024.4721849789
- Time s
- 2,024.4721849789
- Charge C
- 3,036.7082774683
Faraday's first law of electrolysis can be rearranged to answer a practical planning question: how long must a constant current run to deposit a chosen mass of metal or other product at an electrode. Given a target mass in grams, the cell current in amperes, the molar mass of the species, and the number of electrons transferred per formula unit, this capability returns the required electrolysis time with a deterministic SI formula—no tables, no network, and no random drift. Students use it to check homework on copper plating duration, aluminum electrowinning schedules, and silver electrorefining run lengths; lab software and manufacturing scripts use the same contract to pin expected second values in tests. Zero current is rejected as invalid input because the I M denominator is undefined.
What the electrolysis time formula returns and how to choose inputs
Write the electrolysis planning problem with four known quantities: target deposited mass m in grams, electric current I in amperes, molar mass M of the deposited species in grams per mole, and the number of electrons n transferred when one formula unit of that species is reduced or oxidized.
Faraday's first law rearranged for time states that the required duration equals mass times n times the Faraday constant F, all divided by current times molar mass, where F is the charge of one mole of electrons, about ninety-six thousand four hundred eighty-five coulombs per mole. For a copper two-plus ion reduced to metal, n equals two; for silver one-plus, n equals one; for aluminum three-plus, n equals three. Mass must be non-negative because a negative gram target is not a physical deposit in this product.
Molar mass must be positive so the mass scale stays meaningful, and electrons must be non-zero for the same denominator reason.
What you can do with it
Homework and exam verification
Students and graders compute required electrolysis time for copper, silver, or aluminum half-reactions from m, I, M, and n, and get a clear error when zero current is submitted by mistake.
Electroplating schedule estimates
Shop and lab scripts estimate how many seconds of plating are needed for a target gram deposit at a planned current before committing bath chemistry, without reimplementing Faraday's law in every spreadsheet.
FAQ
How do I calculate electrolysis time for a target deposited mass?
The response includes time in seconds via t = (m·n·F)/(I·M).
What happens if current is zero?
Zero current makes the Faraday denominator I·M undefined (division by zero) and is rejected and not charged.
What units does the calculator use?
Mass in grams, current in amperes, molar mass in g/mol, and time in seconds. Charge is reported in coulombs. The Faraday constant is 96485.3321 C/mol.
Is the electrolysis time calculator free?
The browser tool runs free on your device.
Does the calculator include current efficiency?
No. It assumes 100% faradaic efficiency at constant current. If side reactions waste charge, scale the returned time upward by dividing by your efficiency fraction.
Related tools
For developers — API access
Everything on this page is available programmatically. This section is for teams who want to wire it into their own systems; everyone else can just use the tool above.
API endpoint
Prefer to automate it? One authenticated POST creates the task; the result comes back by webhook or a signed link. The same capability also runs here on the web, by email and from Telegram — and soon from our app too.
Call it from your stack
curl -X POST https://api.kit.forhosting.com/chem/electrolysis-time \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $KIT_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"mass":1,"current":1.5,"molar_mass":63.546,"electrons":2}'const res = await fetch("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/chem/electrolysis-time", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.KIT_KEY}`,
"Content-Type": "application/json"
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"mass": 1,
"current": 1.5,
"molar_mass": 63.546,
"electrons": 2
})
});
const { task_id } = await res.json();import os, requests
res = requests.post(
"https://api.kit.forhosting.com/chem/electrolysis-time",
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['KIT_KEY']}"},
json={
"mass": 1,
"current": 1.5,
"molar_mass": 63.546,
"electrons": 2
},
)
task_id = res.json()["task_id"]<?php
$res = file_get_contents("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/chem/electrolysis-time", false, stream_context_create([
"http" => [
"method" => "POST",
"header" => "Authorization: Bearer " . getenv("KIT_KEY") . "\r\nContent-Type: application/json",
"content" => '{"mass":1,"current":1.5,"molar_mass":63.546,"electrons":2}',
],
]));
$task = json_decode($res, true);body := bytes.NewBufferString(`{"mass":1,"current":1.5,"molar_mass":63.546,"electrons":2}`)
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.kit.forhosting.com/chem/electrolysis-time", body)
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("KIT_KEY"))
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)Example request
{
"mass": 1,
"current": 1.5,
"molar_mass": 63.546,
"electrons": 2
}Example response
{
"task_id": "tsk_a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6",
"type": "chem.electrolysis_time",
"status": "queued",
"_links": {
"result": "/tasks/tsk_…/result"
}
}The API is asynchronous: the call returns a task_id immediately and the result arrives by webhook. Polling is capped at 1 req/s per task.
Pricing
Published price — no tokens, no invented credits. A failed task is never charged.
Errors
| HTTP | Code | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
401 | unauthorized | Missing or invalid API key. |
402 | insufficient_balance | Your balance doesn't cover the task price. |
404 | unknown_type | That task type doesn't exist. |
429 | rate_limited | Too many requests. Use the webhook instead of polling. |
Technical notes
What the electrolysis time formula returns and how to choose inputs
Send a JSON object with required fields mass, current, molar_mass, and electrons as finite numbers or numeric strings; aliases such as m, I, M, n, mass_g, target_mass, amperes, molecular_weight, and valence are accepted when documented by the SDK so client code can speak laboratory English. Current must be strictly positive; zero amperes fail with invalid_input because division by I M is undefined and the engine never returns Infinity or NaN for that case. Identical inputs always produce identical JSON because the path is pure arithmetic with no network, no random seed, and no wall clock.
Reading time, charge, moles, and intermediate Faraday quantities
The constants block documents the Faraday constant F used and the SI unit labels for mass, current, molar mass, time, and charge. The primary result is time in seconds, also exposed as time_s for clients that prefer an explicit unit suffix. charge_C reports the total charge that will pass as current times time in coulombs, which is the Q that textbooks often introduce before converting to moles of electrons. moles_product is mass divided by molar mass, and moles_electrons is n times moles of product, so you can verify the stoichiometry step by step against a hand calculation. The formula string is always t equals open parenthesis m times n times F close parenthesis over open parenthesis I times M close parenthesis, and the method label is always faraday_first_law_time so downstream code can branch without sniffing shapes. Use time alone when a plating schedule needs a single second figure; use charge_C and moles_product when grading software must check intermediate coulomb and mole arithmetic separately. Missing required fields, non-finite numbers, negative mass, zero or negative current, non-positive molar mass, and zero electrons all fail with invalid_input and are not charged after the engine rejects the request.
API usage, pricing, lab workflows, and practical limits
Keep inputs within ordinary lab ranges—amperes from microplates to industrial baths, masses from milligrams to multi-kilogram targets—and prefer classroom-scale numbers for grading oracles. Send a JSON body with the four required numbers and call the free in-browser electrolysis time calculator for homework checks, lecture demos, and quick plating-duration estimates without installing a spreadsheet or a local chemistry toolkit. Use the prepaid API when a tutoring platform, process-control sandbox, curriculum generator, or electroplating pipeline needs a stable contract under KIT balance at $0.002 per successful item; validation failures never consume balance after the engine rejects the request. Pair this endpoint with a Faraday mass-deposited calculator when you already know a run time and want grams instead of seconds, or with a molar-mass calculator when the species formula is known but M is not yet numeric. This product assumes one hundred percent current efficiency and constant current; if your cell wastes charge on side reactions, scale the result by efficiency outside this capability—lower efficiency means more time for the same target mass. Authors shipping SDKs can map time, charge_C, and moles_product directly into UI tables that mirror the worked example students write on paper when they rearrange Faraday's law for duration by hand.
Integration use cases
Tutoring and curriculum generators
Lesson builders produce worked Faraday time examples with structured JSON for flashcards, step sheets, and auto-graded electrochemistry drills focused on duration rather than mass.