here`s a very simple Water electrolysis piece of apparatus I made a few days ago, the design is Very Simple, and the materials are easily obtained from most any glassware supplier.

 

 

and:

 

 

I use NaOH soln in it as the electrodes are plain Stainless steel wire, If you can afford Pt electrodes then H2SO4 soln it usually preferred.

and here`s the Real deal, a Hoffman Voltameter, I`ve had to take the pic in 2 shots as it`s quite tall!

 

 

and the top part:

 

Nice, far better than my Hoffman Apparatus, which I built out of 3L bottles and plastic tubing :/

Nicely done!

 

As a teenager, I tried to make an electrolysis cell by melting holes in the bottom of a plastic peanut butter jar and epoxying carbon electrodes into there so you could invert a test tube over each and collect the gases. Unfortunately, something (either the electrode itself or the epoxy) was porous enough that when I tried electrolyzing salt, the chlorine produced was able to seep through to attack the copper wire attached to the anode. The wire was weakened enough that it broke when handled.

The best electrodes would be platinum, second graphite I think. Most metals like iron would be a bad choice for the anode the one that dosent bubble. Because iron as an example will corrode and oxside, It looks disgusting.

Very nice Hoffman Voltameter YT

 

I remember the first time I made hydrogen from water. I was probably eleven and didn't know a whole lot about chemistry. I used copper for electrodes, which didn't turn out too well. I also used plain water, since I didn't know anything about electrolytes. However, I was satisfied with a a tiny "poof" made by a tiny bubble of hydrogen

 

YT, are the SS wires bent into a corkscrew in the picture?

yeah, corkscrew wound, more surface area in a smaller space, I just wrapped it around a screwdriver and slid it off

Thanks

hey can you give me some tips on how you made that simple electrolysis apparatus of yours?...thanks!

coz im thinking of making an equipment with the electrolysis apparatus already connected to it that i would just then pour water into the funnel passing through the electrodes then after that, the water will eventually be electolyzed....

Edited October 14, 200817 yr by meetmino