Question

Why are substances such as platinum and palladium often used for carrying out electrolysis of aqueous solutions?

Answer 1

Hint: Palladium is a chemical element with atomic number 46 and the symbol Pd. It's a lustrous silvery-white metal discovered by English chemist William Hyde Wollaston in 1803.
Platinum is a chemical element with atomic number 78 and the symbol Pt. It's a silverish-white transition metal that's dense, malleable, ductile, and extremely unreactive. Its name comes from the Spanish word platino, which means "little silver."

Complete answer:
Electrolysis is a chemistry and manufacturing process that uses direct electric current (DC) to drive a chemical reaction that would otherwise be non-spontaneous. Electrolysis is important in the commercial separation of elements from naturally occurring sources like ores using an electrolytic cell. The decomposition potential is the voltage needed for electrolysis to occur. The word "lysis" means "to split or split," so electrolysis may be described as "electrical breakdown" or "electrical breakdown."
Electrolysis is characterised by the exchange of atoms and ions caused by the loss or addition of electrons caused by the applied current. Electrolysis' desired products are often in a different physical state than the electrolyte and can be separated using physical methods (e.g. by collecting gas above an electrode or precipitating a product out of the electrolyte).
The quantity of products generated is proportional to the current, and the products produced in two or more electrolytic cells attached in series to the same power source are proportional to their equal weight. These are known as Faraday's laws of electrolysis.
When neutral atoms or molecules receive or lose electrons, such as those on an electrode's surface, they become ions, which may dissolve in the electrolyte and react with other ions.
Because of the following purposes, platinum and palladium are often used in the electrolysis of aqueous solutions:
a. Chemical inertness: Platinum and palladium are both chemically inert metals.
b. Adsorption potential: Platinum and palladium have a high hydrogen absorption capacity. Since the adsorbed hydrogen is very active, platinum and palladium have a high catalytic activity.

Note:
Chemically inert is a word used in chemistry to describe a substance that is not chemically reactive. A material is thermodynamically inert, or nonlabile, whether it is thermodynamically unstable (positive normal Gibbs free energy of formation) but decomposes slowly or not at all.
The amount of adsorbate taken up by the adsorbent per unit mass (or volume) of the adsorbent is known as adsorption capacity (or loading). The mass of water adsorbed per mass of desiccant is the adsorption potential of a solid desiccant for water.