Question

When plating cutlery using electrolysis, what makes the plating stick to the spoon once the electrons have moved into the plating?

Answer 1

In electro\(\sf lysis\), you're breaking molecules apart and forming new (more reduced) forms. What you mean is electro\(\sf plating\) (or electro\(\sf deposition\)) which involves reducing metal ions onto the cathodic electrode. The metal atoms form chemical bonds onto the surface (that is how they "stick"), their nature is metallic \(\sf when\) they conduct electricity. Sometimes other species (e.g. organic ions) are wanted to be trapped along with the metal on the electrode as a matrix, this obviously changes the nature of the bonding on the electrode.