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Electrolysis, using a plasma anode


woelen

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The following webpage describes an experiment I did with electrolysis of a solution of NaCl and KI with a copper wire as cathode, and a little plasma beam as anode. This is a very special experiment, which I want to share with you.

 

If you want to repeat this experiment, be VERY careful. It is a dangerous experiment, and should only be performed if you really feel confident that you safely can do this. I also had a small accident, which was quite painful (droplets of water and salt hitting the skin at very high speed).

 

The experiment can be seen here:

 

http://woelen.scheikunde.net/science/chem/exps/HV_electrolysis/index.html

 

No need to fear that k3wls will do this experiment, because the required apparatus is not in the average k3wl-house :D .

 

The AVI files in the webpage usually can be opened by simply clicking them, but with some versions of Windows, you first need to download them to your harddisk, before the playback works. So, if it does not work, please download them to your local disk and then try again.

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In order to test if the color is because of excited chlorine atoms you could try the experiment in an airtight environment containing pure helium or some other inert gas. Then if the color of the plasma changes with chlorine buildup it’s because of excited atoms. Also if you electrolyses heavy water and the plasma electrode is the cathode(the side where deuterium comes out) you have a cold fusion reactor

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Woelen, Nice Demo! :)

 

You`re officialy as Crazy as me now :)

if you`de have been a little more Cruel and used a vegetable as your victim you`de have seen the results of that explosion(s) and the damage it can do, take a look here: http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2214

 

the Ion wind is indeed quite powerful too, I did a similar demo but I used petrol in a metal tray and tried to ignite it with the plasma, it was almost impossible as it kept blowing the liquid and all the vapors away, you had to chase it very fast into a corner in order to get a result.

 

another test you will like is at attatch one of the wires to your lit bunsen burner, and then use the other wire by the flame, I`ll not spoil the fun by telling you the results, but you`ll like it :)

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beaut!

did i see that correctly? it looked like you had a large volume of water electrolysing under the anode.

 

as for fusion, a high power spark, like that from a large peizo crystal arcing across deuterium gas has been proven to fuse into helium, it's not effective though. nor is it cold.

 

can this experiment be done using a plasma cathode instead? if you had enough voltage you might get a electrolysis using a cathode ray.

(just dont pass it through glass if you dont like being irradiated)

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actualy I`ve done something similar, the setup was a 250ml glass beaker with an alu foil coating on the outside and a wire attatched then taped up securely.

the beaker was filled with salt water (NaCl soln), and then a high voltage passed from the foil outer to a hovering probe just above the liquid level. there was arcing but very weak, perhaps at a higher voltage would have been a little better, I only used 2Kv.

12Kv should prove interesting if arc-over can be avoided :)

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Rocket man, I did the experiment with a plasma cathode. The effect is quite similar to the situation with a plasma anode, but all effects are much weaker. The color of the plasma beam also is different, it is more red/purple, while the anode beam is more blue/purple. Most noticeable, however, is that things are weaker.

 

YT, I also did an experiment, by putting a piece of Al-foil under the petri dish, and connecting this foil to the cathode. The effect of this is quite stunning. The electrolysis now is extremely noisy. In fact, I do not get a nice steady beam anymore, but sparks at a very high repetition rate (a few 1000's of times per second I estimate). The Al-foil acts as cap of a few tens of pF, and this is charged and discharged by means of a real spark. There is no plasma anymore, but sparks jumping around in all direction from the cathode. More spectacular, but also less controllable.

At times, I also had severe arc-over over the rim of the petri dish from the liquid, around the glass, into the Al-foil underneath the petri dish. The setup had to be adjusted carefully and the petri dish had to be cleaned carefully in order to prevent arc over.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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