Print PDF
Favorite
Email
Electrolysis is the decomposition of hydrogen and oxygen in water. In other words you break apart the molecules that make up water to restore the elements to their original state. In this case both hydrogen and oxygen exist in a gaseous state. In order to perform electrolysis you must run an electric current through water that contains an electrolyte. The electrolyte allows current to pass through the water because pure water, or even tap water for that matter, is not conductive enough to allow electricity to pass through it. The electrolyte I added in this experiment was salt, a common household item.
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1Getting the stuff
The materials you will need for this experiment are:
baking soda (it used to be salt but then I was informed that I may have been producing chlorine gas)
Hot water (enough to fill your container of choice)
a container preferably air-tight and definitely clear
a pair of screws (these will act as the electrodes you pass the
current through)
a battery (a nine volt will do nicely for your first try)
Space to work (I barely had any and that made it a lot tougher)
Materials you may want to have, but are not necessary:
a glue gun (to patch up any holes left by the electrodes)
a DC power source so you don't have to worry about the batteries
running out.
a container that can dispense the hydrogen and oxygen (see introduction)
baking soda (it used to be salt but then I was informed that I may have been producing chlorine gas)
Hot water (enough to fill your container of choice)
a container preferably air-tight and definitely clear
a pair of screws (these will act as the electrodes you pass the
current through)
a battery (a nine volt will do nicely for your first try)
Space to work (I barely had any and that made it a lot tougher)
Materials you may want to have, but are not necessary:
a glue gun (to patch up any holes left by the electrodes)
a DC power source so you don't have to worry about the batteries
running out.
a container that can dispense the hydrogen and oxygen (see introduction)
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
You seem to love your carbon allotropes Mr Fullerene :P
If you want something of a more permanent nature i would recommend getting Stainless Steel Tubing, it will cost more but it wont corrode.
(Actually, all matter turns out to be mostly empty space if you could look closely- check out this link to Rutherford's experiment which measured the nucleus of gold atoms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geiger%E2%80%93Marsden_experiment)
This is where the definition of an "Ideal" gas comes in which is most closely related to Helium (If I remember correctly) because the only intermolecular forces are dispersion forces relating to the instantaneous positioning of electons in an electron cloud.
In gasses such as H2 and O2 (because of there lack of dipole moment) dispersion forces are also present but to a larger degree because of the larger size of the electron cloud and the number of electrons (shown by a higher melting point)
The other intermolecular forces of gasses include dipole-dipole and hydrogen bonding (I think). Anyway both hydrogen and oxygen have low melting points proving the forces between them are negligable when looking at gasses at around 300 kelvins.
brain explodes
hahahahhahahahaha!!