What Do I Do If I Get This Job?
Jobs & Education1 min ago
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.You could actually use, say, a carbon electrode for the cathode, but this would mean having to separate it from the pure copper deposited around it at the end of the the electrolysis.
By using some of the previously purified copper for the next cathode, separation of the different materials is unnecessary when the next electrolysis is complete.
The impure copper, of course, is obtained by smelting from copper ores, such as cuprite, (copper oxide), chalcocite (copper sulphide), and chalcopyrite (an iron/copper sulphide).