Splitting water at home

[5614]

I haven't tried this method personally but does electrolysis straight into a balloon work? Because you'd need high presures, but then maybe you'd get them, dunno, hence I'm asking you guys (and girls!).

[woelen]

Electrolysing directly into a balloon of the gas mixture H2 and O2 I would strongly advice against. If for whatever reason you get a spark (e.g. because the two electrodes touch each other inside the balloon), then the complete setup will be scattered and you'll have lots of glass and other stuff flying around. If you use two balloons, one for H2 and one for O2, then it may work, but the problem with balloons is that they are quite porous and especially the H2 will escape from the balloon quickly. Besides that, doing electrolysis with the balloons seems very cumbersome to me.

[5614]

Electrolysing directly into a balloon of the gas mixture H2 and O2 I would strongly advice against

That's a very true point. However in a case such as electrolyzer's where he is gathering a small volume and then detonating soon after collection would the pressure be attained?

 

(You can use a plastic cup and you can watch the water volume decrease as it is converted into the gasses as a measurement system.)

[electrolyzer]

@electrolyzer: What did you collect at the anode? Did you collect any gas at the anode? Could you please explain precisely what you did to make the 100 ml of hydrogen gas? I'm really interested.

 

To woelen

 

I used a rectangular plastic container, about 25 cm long and 12cm wide. I drilled two small holes at its bottom, 8 cm distant from each other. Then I extracted two carbon rods from two ordinary AA batteries(non-alkaline), and inserted them into the drilled holes(these I found extremely good as electrodes, since they are thicker than pencil carbon). The graphite rods were inserted such that 90% of them were exposed at the internal of the container(where water was poured). The other 10% was exposed at the bottom, outside the container.

 

Then I poured molten wax to fill the gaps between the holes and the carbon rods.

 

Then I used two copper wires, and attached them to the 10% of carbon which was exposed at the bottom. The copper wires were then connected to the power supply, more precisely, to a 12v DC supply.

 

After pouring water, I used two jars of approx. 100ml, upside down, onto the two electrodes(you said you did something like this woelen).

 

I didn't use any acid. It was tap water I was using for electrolysis. Tap water tends to be full of different minerals which are conductive. I think that's why I managed to collect so much gas in 1hr or so. At the cathode I produced 100ml of H2(the full jar), which immediately burned with a POP when I lit it up. At the anode I produced app. half a jar of oxygen. That's all.

 

 

P.S. ---> Sorry for my English, I'm not English, nor American,nor Australian and neither Canadese.lol.

[jdurg]

For oxygen, you can always just go to a hardware store and grab a huge bottle of it. I know this is probably really stupid, but when I was a bit younger (Okay, maybe only five or six years ago) and my friends and I would do a lot of strenuous activities, we'd get one of those oxygen cylinders and breathe in a little bit afterwards to prevent cramping later on. lol. I'm not sure how effective it was, but I sure did feel better afterwards.

 

Anyway, a fun way I found for producing hydrogen is with a sodium/lead alloy. With a bunch of spare lead shot and some sodium metal, make a mixture of about 15% Na and the rest lead by volume. It's easy to melt this down, and it stays relatively stable. When you put it in water, however, it will bubble off hydrogen gas as all the sodium reacts slowly with water. It's pretty neat to see.

[YT2095]

NaOH and alu foil is just as good, and a sh!t load easier to get hold of too

[woelen]

To woelen

 

I used a rectangular plastic ....<text snipped for brevity> .... That's all.

That's a very nice setup you made' date=' I never did it that nice way, I just took two electrodes, wound some copper wire around one end, put some cello-tape around it and then put that side (tape and wire) all in a big drop of glue. In that way, only the carbon part is in contact with water and the isolated part of the copper wire. Your setup, however, is much nicer.

 

You must have a lot of minerals in your tap water if you can obtain so much H2 and O2 in just an hour. The experiments I did with tap water simply were too slow to be useful.

 

 

As others already mentioned, if you want to make H2 and O2, there are other faster and more convenient ways.

 

My personal preferred way of making hydrogen gas in large amounts quickly at very low cost with easy to obtain chems is the following:

 

Dissolve just a pinch of copper sulfate in dilute hydrochloric acid (appr. 7% HCl, 10% at most). Copper oxide or copper carbonate from a ceramics supplier also is OK. You can also make such a solution by electrolyzing dilute HCl for a while with a copper anode. The anode will dissolve.

Having made this solution, you have prepared something with which you can dissolve Al-household foil in a matter of seconds and you produce LOTS of H2-gas in a vigorous reaction, which is not too violent (that's why the concentration of HCl must not be too high). The copper/chloride combination is essential. Leaving out one of these makes the reaction much slower and introduces large induction times. See also the following experiment on my website with Al-foil and copper+chloride mixtures:

Experiment with al and copper+chloride mixture.

 

Making oxygen gas is even easier. Take some H2O2 (3%) and put in this some mangenese dioxide (from pottery/ceramics stores). Putting in a little piece of raw flesh also works, but this looks quite ugly and unpleasant. The AA-cells, you took apart also contain a lot of MnO2, that's the black powdery stuff. It is not 100% pure what you take out of these batteries but it is perfectly suitable for making oxygen out of H2O2.

[electrolyzer]

Electrolysing directly into a balloon of the gas mixture H2 and O2 I would strongly advice against. If for whatever reason you get a spark (e.g. because the two electrodes touch each other inside the balloon), then the complete setup will be scattered and you'll have lots of glass and other stuff flying around. If you use two balloons, one for H2 and one for O2, then it may work, but the problem with balloons is that they are quite porous and especially the H2 will escape from the balloon quickly. Besides that, doing electrolysis with the balloons seems very cumbersome to me.

 

I like the idea of gathering gases directly into a balloon although it's true that it may sound somewhat "cumbersome".

 

But I think it is possible. For example, you may use the arrangement I used for producing the gases, but instead of using two jars, you can use one of these 2ltr table water bottles(the plastic ones). You cut the top part, and put it onto the two electrodes. Then you attach the balloon with the part from which we usually drink from. I don't know if it could work. I'm just considering.

[electrolyzer]

 

Now cap the little bottle with the gas mixture and transport it to another tub' date=' in which water is placed with dish-washing soap. Bubble the gas mixture [i']completely [/i] out of the third little bottle and quickly light the bubbles at the surface of the water. Be sure that ALL detonating gas mixture is out of the bottle. You must not think of what happens when some of the gas remains in the small bottle and it detonates at that place.

 

Why should I use dish-washing soap?????

 

 

 

If you use a total volume of less than 10 ml' date=' then you'll be fairly safe, but even this small amount of gas mix already gives a really impressive BOOM, which may disturb neighbours if the houses are not too well sound-isolated.[/quote']

 

I never did any detonation gas, but does a 10ml of gas mixture make a "really impressive boom"??? 10ml is really a small volume........

[woelen]

Why should I use dish-washing soap?????

This is because you want to keep the bubbles when they reach the surface. Any soap, which preserves the bubbles at the surface for a reasonable time works, but in my experience, dish-washing soap is best.

 

 

 

 

I never did any detonation gas, but does a 10ml of gas mixture make a "really impressive boom"??? 10ml is really a small volume........

PLEASE do not use more. Even 10 ml of gas gives a frightening impressive BOOM. I'm not joking, this really is true. If you use 100 ml of gas mixture, then I'm afraid that the glass from your house will be blown away, but at least you'll damage your ears. PLEASE believe me!

 

You know the name, it is called detonating gas.

[electrolyzer]

that's coooooooool...............I'll be cautious then lol.

[5614]

You can always try with a small amount and go bigger if you so wish once you know what you're dealing with!

 

As for the balloon, I think that if you leave no gas (air) in the bottle/container holding the water then it is more likely to work, because air will compress a lot and so the extra pressure from H and O will compress the air as well as fill the balloon, if the bottle/container is full entirely with water the H and O is more likely to expand the balloon then squash water (well, maybe it'd compress the water, but it will compress water less than it compresses air).

[electrolyzer]

To woelen

 

Instead of gathering the gases seperatly, can I use the method I suggested, i.e, the one of the ballon. I would gather the gases in the same balloon, and I think the balloon is a much more safe conainer than a glass one, should an early detonation occur....

[woelen]

To woelen

 

Instead of gathering the gases seperatly' date=' can I use the method I suggested, i.e, the one of the ballon. I would gather the gases in the same balloon, and I think the balloon is a much more safe conainer than a glass one, should an early detonation occur....[/quote']

You can do that, provided you do not collect more than 10 ml total. But still, I don't see the benefits of the balloon method. There is the chance of early detonation, but indeed, inside a balloon this is not that severe. There is another problem though and that is that balloons are quite porous. Probably a lot of the H2 will diffuse out of the balloon, while you are doing the electrolysis and hence the detonating gas will not be as strong as it could be. But this is only my thought. If you really want to know, just try it.

 

If I were you, I would use your nice setup with two little bottles of gas. So, why not collect approximately 5 ml of H2 (and hence 2.5 ml of O2) in separate bottles, and then bubble the O2 into the H2 bottle. Then you are guaranteed to have the right ratio of gasses and have optimal strength of the gas-mix. Next, you can try how loud the detonation is of the 7.5 ml of gas. This may be a nice starting point to get the feeling of it and it requires only a few minutes of electrolysis.

Of course, the quantities I mention need not be precise, just try something in the order of magnitude of 5 to 10 ml total gas mix and see how loud the bang is.

[electrolyzer]

Is there some method to detonate the mixture?? Or should I just detonate with a match? I'm getting somewhat scared now to detonate the whole thing with an ordinary match lol....

[YT2095]

use a taper then.

[woelen]

I used a long match and I still have both my hands and all my fingers.... another reason to start with small quantities .

[YT2095]

failing that, and you REALLY get adventurous, put some in a condom at the end of a bamboo cane (the 8 foot Runner bean canes are best) and light a candle outdoors (you can work the rest out yourself).

 

I would however STILL reccomend the use of ear protection even outside!

[electrolyzer]

I did it . The boom wasn't that impressive though. I think I used too few gas.

[5614]

So try again! And keep adding until you are satisfied. However that mind set is potentially dangerous, some people take it too far. So consider safety first, then keep adding until either you reach where you feel comfortable (safety wise) or you are sufficiently impressed. However once you have seen a big impressive explosion you may want more, hence be sensible and stick to safety limits!

[Pat Says]

I did it . The boom wasn't that impressive though. I think I used too few gas.

If its noise you want get some dry ice, water and a two-liter. Fill the two liter with some warm water (not hot!) and then put dry ice into the two-liter and close the cap and get away. The amount of water doesn't matter too much except that the less water = longer to explode and louder explosion and vice-versa. Btw, get rid of the bottle pretty soon because I can imagine it would hurt your hand if it blew up while you held it. It usualy blows in less than 30 seconds with a little less than half filled with water and a good amount of d-ice.

 

warning! do not do with glass bottles

 

Heres a video of some people doing it.

[akcapr]

glass bottles look cooler

[ffsjoe]

have fun picking tiny shards of glass out of you, plus if you do it at home you'll have to wear shoes outside

[electrolyzer]

If its noise you want get some dry ice' date=' water and a two-liter. Fill the two liter with some warm water (not hot!) and then put dry ice into the two-liter and close the cap and get away. The amount of water doesn't matter too much except that the less water = longer to explode and louder explosion and vice-versa. Btw, get rid of the bottle pretty soon because I can imagine it would hurt your hand if it blew up while you held it. It usualy blows in less than 30 seconds with a little less than half filled with water and a good amount of d-ice.

 

[/quote']

 

I like it .But the guys in the video were throwing the thing before it exploded. Hence, should I throw it or it just explodes by its own??

Btw, this does not have anything to do with electrolysis does it? So I won't have to produce any h2 or o2 am I right?

[5614]

You are correct this has nothing to do with electrolysis.