My new page on Oxy-hydrogen explosions

[j_dmillar]

Please visit http://oxydro.atspace.com/oxyhydro.htm and see what you think of it. Proofread, check math, comment, criticise, etc., if you have time. I want review here! ;)

Just something I wrote up today while waiting for something to do, it needs a lot of polish.

I don't really know where to put this, so I figured I was safest with starting a new thread in the WC :) .

[K'Luuppo]

Wouldn't graphite electrodes from batteries work? They are much more easier and cheaper to acquire than platinun electrodes.

You could add a calculation about time needed for specific amount of gas with certain current. Not sure if I made my point clear, so:

It=nzF, I=current (A), t=time (s), n=amount of substance (mol), z=number of shifting electrons, F=96 485 As/mol

[FUTI]

it looks cool...but did anyone had explosion with hydrogen; I had one in high-school, that gas generating apparatus didn't make a good seal and made an explosive mixture when it exploded it explode badly we cleaned the pieces from entire lab and half of school came to see what happened there. :o Nobody get hurt but we were scared. As for a review...
As I see it they used platinum wire because :
1. it is often stated as electrode for this process and they didn't want to bother why ( which is wise if you don't have enough chemical knowledge if you find a right reference and not some internet bullshit I find sometimes)
2. there is a reason why platinum is used...hydrogen overpotential is the keyword (I hope that is correct english terminology).
I agree with you guys that is can be made with other electrodes as well...to be honest this idea with batery graphite brings me back in school days:) (but from above said about my school days...maybe that is not such a good idea).
I remember that searching for a improvised lab construction can be such a pain. In one of my first electrolysis attempt I use ligthbulb (not so bad choice as a beaker substitute, but use of a bulb wires was wrong idea). I tought if it is made of wolfram it is almost inert so I can electrolyse acid solution in it. Well I discovered when the solution at one of the electrode become green that it is made of copper that have small amount of material most likely made trough vaporisation process. Latter at university I learn that wolfram is so hard to melt that nobody make wire out of it, they just press its powder and practically glue it...I forget how.

[j_dmillar]

Graphite would be just fine, for sure, I simply used platinum since I had a couple of meters of the wire on hand. I believe that if you would use sodium hydroxide solution as the electrolyte, stainless steel would actually work quite well.

As a side note, I also set up a slightly different cell for making chlorine yesterday. I used a 355ml bottle to hold the platinum anode which was run in through the side and sealed (with GOOP). Sodium chloride solution was the electrolyte, and the bottle was partially immersed (neck down) in another container containing a copper cathode (you don't want the hydrogen forming at the cathode to mix with the Cl2, as it can explode on exposure to light or heat).
Over a couple of hours, it filled the bottle with chlorine, which I discarded for lack of any convenient use for it. I did accidentally inhale a tiny amount (a few cc maybe, mixed with many liters of air), just enough to leave me feeling like I had to sneeze all the time for a little while.

[FUTI]

j_dmillar you are absolutely rigth about that sodium hydroxide stainless stell cell, it will only clean the surface of the stell. I also had once inhale little chlorine (although I didn't generated it through electrochemical call...I used permanganate and hydrochloric acid since didn't need larger amount) that is a very bad taste and feel it leaves...hope you are OK now.