Separate Hydrogen and Oxygen from Water Through Electrolysis

Step 3: Water and Salt

Water alone is not a very good conductor. You need to add some sort of electrolyte. Regular old table salt works fine. Add as much as will dissolve into the water, and don't worry about it if there is some sitting on the bottom, it really doesn't matter. Pour this salt/water solution into your med. container, and also fill your 1 or 2 gas collecting containers

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magesing says: Jan 4, 2013. 7:26 AM

Note: if you use NaCl (table salt) as your electrolyte, you will make more Cl2 (chlorine gas) then O2 (oxygen gas). If you are trying to make oxygen, this is not the correct choice of electrolyte. also node, you do NOT want to breath in chlorine gas.

mDey says: Mar 14, 2011. 10:16 AM

*IMPORTANT QUESTION*

I'm doing this as a science project - can I do this with SEAWATER?

FRED MAXEY in reply to mDeyMar 29, 2011. 9:01 PM

we did it all the time with sea water, on a submarine, but you still have to distill the water and add a di agent.
FM

bluke1 in reply to mDeyMar 24, 2011. 11:57 AM

Sadly the electrolysis of sea water does not yield hydrogen or oxygen. Instead, it yields chlorine gas. (deadly poisonous).

Although known to scientists for a long time, this fact became common knowledge during the second world war.

If a battery powered submarine hull was damaged (holed) by enemy action or accident while submerged, sea water would enter the hull of the submarine. If it reached the terminals of the motor batteries, chlorine gas would be given off in large quantities which would then kill any crew that came into contact with it. (there is no 'fresh air' in a submerged submarine.) Nasty stuff.

At the time nearly all submarines of all navies used large batteries to power the submarine underwater. these batteries could be recharged by the main (diesel) engines when the sub surfaced at night for that purpose and to renew the air supply for the crew to breathe.

jluke in reply to bluke1Jul 16, 2011. 7:56 PM

at sea, yes there would be a huge amount of chlorine. when the decomposition is completed with salt, the result is chlorine gas and some remaining sodium i believe

mDey in reply to bluke1Mar 25, 2011. 9:28 AM

Oh well. Gonna try it anyway! :)

bluke1 in reply to mDeyMar 25, 2011. 12:21 PM

Good luck.

titan001 says: Jun 9, 2008. 7:50 PM

I thought I'd mention that Salt is probably a bad alternative for an electrolyte, however cheap it may be. The chemical composition of salt is NaCl, or Sodium Chloride. If you're electrolyzing the water, the salt will separate as well, and although in relatively small quantities, you are releasing Chlorine Gas (Mustard Gas) into the air. Chlorine gas will recombine with the water in your eyes and mouth, turning into Hydrochloric Acid, which burns no matter how small the dose. A better alternative would be Baking Soda, if you can find some.

vestie in reply to titan001May 24, 2009. 5:37 PM

You might want to check your facts... Chlorine =! Mustard Gas.

tercero in reply to titan001Jun 29, 2008. 8:20 PM

Actually you produce sodium hypochlorite..(Javex) which is dissolved in water. Not to argue, but I and couple thousand other people have a salt water pool system (Intex) and Electrolysis happens all of the time, every day (for 4 hours in my pool) and I'm still living. So...not quite accurate.

R4NS0M in reply to terceroSep 8, 2009. 10:44 AM

lol...not mustard gas, chlorine gas ~maybe in minute amounts. the more dominant byproduct that will result (and still in small quantity on this scale) would be, depending on the amount of Nacl used and other factors, Na-OH which is more or less dilute Sodium Hydroxide or lye. hehehe fun stuff! let's make some soap!

Wyle_E in reply to titan001Jun 29, 2008. 7:33 PM

Chlorine, nasty as it is, isn't mustard gas. That's a different (and deadlier) beastie, a class of organic sulfides that were used as chemical warfare agents in WWI. It's still not a good idea to electrolyze sodium chloride, unless you want chlorine and chlorine compounds. Sodium bicarbonate is just as easy to come by, and yields hydrogen and oxygen.

anarchysk8 in reply to Wyle_ESep 29, 2009. 7:19 PM

wyle is corect baking soda or sodium bicarbonate is much easier on you as well as easier to mix with the water being that its finer particles require less mixing and as far as the mustard gas thing goes Sulfur mustard is the organic compound described with the formula (ClCH2CH2)2S. In the Depretz method, mustard gas is synthesized by treating sulfur dichloride with ethylene whit sulfur being the main and most important part has no part in this little experiment neither does ethylene so there are no adverse affects to using salt but i would still use baking soda as it produces hydrogen with water