Help! Electrolysis and Fe203

[airy52]

Hi,

 

I'm new to this forum and am trying to produce Fe203(RUST aka Ferric oxide) through electrolysis. I have attatched a thick copper wire to the negative(black)lead and a normal galvanized steel nail.(I think its galvanized, its the kind that is not all rough, it is smooth and kind of gold/bronze). Anyways I want to make sure im not making Acid rust, the opposite of rust. When i do this i yield a thick goopy black/grey liquid that contains only the tiniest trace of rust in it. From what i have heard this is supposed to make rust on the nail and I should scrape it off and let it accumulate. The metal is disentegrating also. The copper wire bubbles and withing 5 minutes the water is dark black. When I reverse the wires it slowly in like 2 hours gives off a small trace of light blue coloring and some rust color moves off the copper wire when i move it. Maybe i have to give the reverse process more time? I dont know, any help would be appreciated. By the way i am using a dc converter just plugged into the wall, it seems to be applying enough power. Should the nail be iron? Some site have said use an iron nail, if so how do i tell if a nail is iron? Thanks in advance

 

Erik

 

EDIT: HERES PICTURES

http://www.thesellgrens.com/rustp/rust.html

any help would be great, i also have an extra 12v dc converter from a cell phone charger if that would be better than this car charger, also where do i get graphite(carbon) electrodes, Thanks

[insane_alien]

wrong terminal. positive will aid the rusting process, negative will retard it. oh and use a carbon electrode instead of having bare wire in the water. the nail will either be steel or iron, both will work.

 

the black colour is a copper compound and the blue substance. that is why you should use a graphite(carbon) electrode.