Juless

Thanks EdEarl I didn't notice any chlorine smell next time I use this apparatus I will defiantly keep my distance. Do either of you guys who have responded know if this setup will work with silver. I have looked around the Internet and generally people use various types of acids.

Lol foxy john I am an art student I have no clue as to how I would test for gas, I have only done very basic high school chemistry Its more that the college encourages us use chemicals etc thought fully and be aware of the method of disposal of anything toxic. We need to have MSDS info about any process we use. This is not how they etch in the studio where I study, I'm doing this at home.

So the bubbles coming off are defiantly hydrogen and chlorine but not enough to do any damage but still, I should work in a well ventilated area. Thanks for your reply

Hi Thank you for your reply EdEarl. I used table salt and demineralised water. I had a feeling that there would be hydrogen and maybe oxygen coming out of the water. I was really mostly concerned that it might be chlorine gas. Is there a possibility that the sodium chloride is breaking down to make that. Also I was reading around this forum and found a topic about this where jdurg says in the thread More copper electrolysis fun! The electrolysis of an NaCl (Sodium Chloride) solution produces chlorine gas and sodium hydroxide. As the copper metal corrodes away, the copper ions will react with the free OH- ions forming Cu(OH)2 which will precipitate out of solution. Is this information relevant to my project.

Hello In new here and I hope this is the right place to post I found this forum while I was looking for some information about what was actually happening chemically when I did this project. I am an art student and wanted to try etching designs into copper by the electrolysis method. My set up was a DCell battery 1.5 volt. connected to a Copper object to etch on the positive end with and another piece of copper on the negative end. I placed them into a salt water solution of 180 grams salt to 500 mls water. I would like to know what the brown and blue stuff is in the water I will attach a picture also I would like to know if any of the chemicals or gas emitted are toxic.