Collecting Hydrogen and Oxygen

In this instructable I'll give you a simple way to collect Hydrogen gas and if you want also, to collect Oxygen. Depending on the voltage and current that you use for the project this could be hazardous. I used a 14.4 volt power drill battery pack for the process but don't recommend it, I only used it to achieve a noticeable effect in a short time period (about 20 minutes).

Step 1: Materials

The required materials are:
-Sufficient length of wire
-DC power source
-Deep water basin or bowl (preferably plastic, there is a chance you could ruin a metal one)
-Water, logically
-Weak acid (ex.vinegar as acetic acid)
-At least two plastic bottles with caps (I like the Gatorade ones because they are thicker and for some reason the Hydrogen at least will compress itself after a few days)
-A sacrificial pencil (or if you have lead [graphite] from an architect's pencil use that instead)
-Small pencil lead case or even just the cap (the refill material case for mechanical pencils)
-Tape
-Putty
-Marker to label the gases
-Long piece of tubing if you cannot find a bowl deep enough
-One sided blade or knife if you use a pencil

-You may also want other materials to plate or turn into Oxide salts

Comments

[BOOM5601]

I put a bridge rectifier on a power cord. It was pumping like there was no tomorrow. But then the electrodes touched and bye-bye insulation and diodes.

[tom10122]

Damn! A diode bridge? Man that must be like 480v right?

[ALogan97]

This is awesome, because I need both gases for a project I'm going to do in the near future, but am on a cheap budget with barely any lab equipment. I'll post the project as an instructable and link to this as a source of oxygen and hydrogen.

[ubuntuPenguin]

could you use a standard small 9V battery?

[willfrey55]

Zinc screws? Is it possible to use some other type of screw?

[SuperKuper]

If you use NaCl as your electrolyte won't the green bottle be full of Chlorine gas and not Oxygen? Not sure what would happen if you used vinegar. I only want to make hydrogen gas, and a lot of it. I don't care if there's is oxygen or not, I'm just going to vent it. I don't want to make chlorine, and I would prefer not to have oxide salts (not a big deal I just don't want to clean them out all the time, I just want to be able to fill it up with water and electrolytes and go).

so with all that in mind, what combination of electrolytes and anode would be best?

[twitsl]

Cool now I can make a hydrogen balloon.

[Attamet]

A really easy way to get the graphite is just to take a wood pencil and burn the wood off.

[m5industriesinc]

what brand drill battery did you use (just curious)?

[mr. clean]

so if u fill a balloon with pure hydrogen then it will float pretty good right?

[nutsandbolts_64]

 from all the warning comments and such, I feel like I could design a hyrdogen bomb (not nuclear!). But for safety and law's sake I shall not! *designs H bomb in brain* Okay, I shall not reveal my plans! *e-mails friend (not really)* 

I like the extra possibilities part. I'll say 1 for common sense, 1 for unique setup, 1 for success, and 1 for the extras. +4!

[g0tmk]

I see many comments on here saying that I should use a car battery/charger for more amps, but it seems mine won't draw more than 20mA, why is that?  I am using an HP power supply.

[zoltzerino]

 is your name a radio callsign?

[Smartzkid]

They are talking about a car battery charger, not a charger which plugs into a car!

[g0tmk]

 Hm?  No, sorry, thats not what I meant.  I do not have a car battery charger, so instead I used a HP power supply that plugs into the wall.  Try as I might though, the water never draws more than 20mA or so.  The supply goes up to 500mA, so I know that is not the bottleneck.  I've tried larger electrodes as well (the carbon rods inside dry AA batteries) but that didn't seem to make a difference.

[tricyclo-ap]

Would there be a problem if I used glass bottles, instead?

[marmique123]

that would be fine though... if you wont light fire cuz it wil explode read this here:

Lighting hydrogen in a glass container is a huge mistake, even if you get away with it. Open top or not, if the mix is within the right range of conditions it won’t combust, it’ll deflagrate or possibly even detonate with a decent level of brisance. In English, instead of pop you get “BANG!” and the shock wave shatters the container

[Wyle_E]

Glass works; it's the traditional material for most chemical apparatus.

[marmique123]

[fireblast_1212]

Just get a glass jar with no air and put it in the water. Then just put a 9v battery in it. Quick and easy hydrogen. No oxygen though. Not that I can see.

[fireblast_1212]

Corrected. There is a small amount of oxygen at the positive part.

[darkanima93]

you can also get Cu(OH)2 by using a copper electrode. When you have enough Copper Hydroxide heat it up until it turns a black color.
the reaction looks like this:
Cu(OH)2 ---> CuO + H2O
you can use the CuO in thermite inplace of the Al2O3 it might explode

[your dog]

How do you hold hydrogen? does the water bottle contain it well?

[nickk]

Hello, I tried what you described step by step, what happened is that the ( - ) negative side bubbled yes but the ( + ) positive side didn't give out a single tiny buble !! , after i collected much enough of the gas, i burned it to make sure it is not hydrogen and it wasn't indeed. becasue as u said the hydrogen bubles from the positive side. So what you think is wrong here? and why isn't the positive wire giving gas ?

[tesla coil]

How many volts did you input sometimes people dont have enough electricity

[buckminsterfullerene]

you can add a bit of vinegar to the water to help make it more conductive and therefore get better results. the only reason this works is because of the impurities in the water. if this water were pureley H2O molecules, then this would not work unless you had enough voltage to create a spark jump, but that would be around 10,000 volts

[ReCreate]

So this oxygen,Is it breatheable? What is generated more,Hydrogen or oxygen? Also if the voltage is raised,Will the gas come out faster? Also as it makes hydrogen and oxygen does it end up with less water?

[bloke2022]

two times as much hydrogen than oxygen
the hydrogen and oxygen is not made, it is the water! so yes the water level will go down.

[ReCreate]

Oh Ok thanks :D

[bylerfamily]

No,the higher the amps the more hydrogen and oxygen.And no,this oxygen is not breathable.

[ReCreate]

Or so the current is what matters not voltage? And, What would happen if i breathe this oxygen?

[bylerfamily]

The voltage matters,you want low voltage at high amps.Something like a 50 amp car battery charger would work very well.You would feel kind of blah,you might be staggering around.If you try it and nothing happens then it should be okay to breath.

[freakyqwerty]

Pure oxyegen is bad for you in the same way hyperventerlating is for you.

[Ivraine]

Actually, The oxygen is totally safe, it just doesn't contain nitrogen, or pollution, which makes it lighter than air. It is common in diving because it decreases the chance of "the bends" because it contains no nitrogen. It also causes better combustion because it contains no nitrogen.

[DELETED_madscientist167]

(removed by author or community request)

[Ivraine]

Yes they do. It does help with the bends, but they add it to pure oxygen, rather than to common air

[DELETED_madscientist167]

(removed by author or community request)

[Ivraine]

Do you mean it does electrolysis as it gets used? If so, good luck, the process is pretty slow, and while your at it hook up a flame-thrower, hydrogen burns sort of well and you get a lot of it

[ReCreate]

50 Amps? How would that work? The outlet only contains 10 15 amps at most. Would a lead acid battery do the job good?

[bylerfamily]

You know about microwave oven transformers?They reduce the voltage and makes a huge increase in amps.Well,the car battery charger works the same way.It has a transformer which has very thick wire wound at the secondary.That decreases the voltage and increases the amps.A lead acid battery would work just fine.