Power source for Water Electrolysis

[Abhishek Krishnan]

I read a research paper where using pulses of alternating polarity for water electrolysis, one can produce both Hydrogen and Oxygen at the same electrode. Also the research paper concluded that using pulses of single polarity produced just one type of gas. What the research paper didn't provide is the source of power used. I want to replicate this experiment and hence did some research online and concluded that I needed a pulse generator to accomplish this. Since I am not an Electronics major I wanted to confirm that this is the equipment I need for my experiment. I appreciate it if anyone could provide some valuable information/suggestions on this.

 

Thanks!

[swansont]

I doubt you need a pulse generator; simpler electronics will suffice. You can do this with a battery or transformer + rectifier, aka an AC-DC converter, like the wall-wart you get with any small electronics for DC, or probably with a variac for AC and use the 50 or 60 Hz frequency from the household power. You need a just a few volts to drive the electrolysis and not that much current, so not just any components will do, and don't use household power directly.

[Abhishek Krishnan]

Thanks a lot for the reply!

Okay let me tell you clearly how I am planning to do the experiment so you can suggest me better. I plan to supply current(or voltage whichever is the right word) in pulses of alternating polarity and I plan to vary the frequency of the pulses from about 1 kHz to say 100 kHz.

 

I am extremely bad with electronics and I do not know much about most things. So you have to literally tell in layman's terms

[Enthalpy]

1kHz to 100kHz usually does NOT electrolyze water. Even 50Hz is too fast for that. You better use DC; mix you gases thereafter if this is what you need.

 

A research paper from what century?