Electolysis of water and a cool light show (fwd)

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Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 04:09:00 -0700
From: Graham Christensen <voltage@xxxxxxxxx>
To: High Voltage list <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Electolysis of water and a cool light show

Just did something really cool.

Take a metal pot full of water (you don't even need to add an electrolyte) and hook that to the core (ground) of a MOT, and then place an insulated wire into the water so that it's not touching the pot. Don't strip the insulation on the end that is in the water, there should only be a little bit of metal in contact with the water at the point where the wire was cut. Then hook the wire to the HV terminal of the MOT and put it through a diode so that it's negative. When you turn it on, the end of the wire will give off a bright pink light and it will spray bubbles and also make a cool buzzing sound.

I was trying to electolyze water from rectified mains. (batteries are too slow) The mains didn't do much better so I thought I'd really have some fun and try it with 2000 volts. At first I had a bare wire in the water but it was drawing too much currrent so I lifted it so only the tip was in th water and it made that cool effect. I thought it was just the hydrogen burning (first time I did it, the wire was barely touching the water, so the light was in contact with the air) but then I used the unsulated wire and created the same effect under water, where there's no oxygen. So I'm guessing what's happening is that it is making hydrogen so fast that it creates a sort of bubble around the end of the wire so the current has to arc through the hydrogen to get from the wire to the water, making a sort of plasma bubble around the end of the wire. If you reverse the polarity so that oxygen is created, it gives off a somewhat greenish glow and the buzzing is much more intense. In fact...the vibrations were so violent when producing oxygen that the pot started to move around the table.

Something you might want to try if you're bored.

Graham
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Graham Christensen
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