[sci.electronics] electrolysis of water

jad@dayton.UUCP (John A. Deters) (12/22/88)

In article <7395@watcgl.waterloo.edu> awpaeth@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Alan Wm Paeth) writes:
>In article <849@inuxm.UUCP> micl23@inuxm.UUCP (W E Miller) writes:
>>> 
>>> How do I use electricity (from a battery-6V lantern type) to separate
>>> water into hydrogen and oxygen?...
>I used to use a sawed-off Purex bottle with a Copper (tubing) electrode and a
>Zinc bar, both wired to an old Selenium stack auto battery charger. I suppose
>graphite electrodes would have been fine.
> ... description and caution deleted ...
>The suggested fix: use a Carbonate salt (eg, baking or washing soda).
>     /Alan Paeth
I found an even more interesting solution to use than plain water:
Well-used photographic fixer.  Photographic fixer works by removing the
light-sensitive silver from the paper, so the silver compound remains
in the fixer bath.  If you use fixer, you will discover that one of your
terminals (the anode, I think) will turn silver colored.  You can actually
peel off the flakes of silver that form on the terminal.  (Well, when you're
in high school, these things are pretty neat.)

-john

benfeen@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Ben Feen) (12/23/88)

Sender: 
Reply-To: benfeen@ddsw1.UUCP (Ben Feen)
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Organization: Traveller's Aid, Mundelein, IL
Keywords: electrolysis

d/d
>I found an even more interesting solution to use than plain water:
>Well-used photographic fixer.  Photographic fixer works by removing the
>light-sensitive silver from the paper, so the silver compound remains
>in the fixer bath.  If you use fixer, you will discover that one of your
>terminals (the anode, I think) will turn silver colored.  You can actually
>peel off the flakes of silver that form on the terminal.  (Well, when you're
>in high school, these things are pretty neat.)
This is GREAT!  I'm taking a photography class - I'm not sure how much
fixer I can "borrow", but I'll try it.


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gil@limbic.UUCP (Gil Kloepfer Jr.) (12/24/88)

In article <6327@dayton.UUCP> jad@dayton.UUCP (John A. Deters) writes:
|>I found an even more interesting solution to use than plain water:
|>Well-used photographic fixer.  Photographic fixer works by removing the
|>light-sensitive silver from the paper, so the silver compound remains
|>in the fixer bath.  If you use fixer, you will discover that one of your
|>terminals (the anode, I think) will turn silver colored.  You can actually
|>peel off the flakes of silver that form on the terminal.  (Well, when you're
|>in high school, these things are pretty neat.)
|>-john

Believe it or not, this is actually used by many phototypsetting firms
to recover the silver in the fixing solution.  Apparantly, they can recover
enough of the silver to make it worthwhile salvaging.

You have also demonstrated a simple electroplating principle with your
experiment.

Yeah, those days were fun....

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