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Topic: conductivity  (Read 3808 times)

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mr rocket

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conductivity
« on: September 23, 2005, 12:40:25 AM »
electolosis of water forms hydrogen and oxygen. but water itself isnt conductive adding salt fixes the problem but also makes chlorine gas with the oxygen and that doesnt help if its the oxygen you are trying to collect any opne know what could be added to water to make it conductive without affecting the raction and still leaving relitivly pure gasses in the end?

Offline lemonoman

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Re:conductivity
« Reply #1 on: September 23, 2005, 01:32:36 AM »
Any (significant) amount of ions in solution will make it electrolytic - giving it the ability to conduct electricity.  Salt does this by dissociating into Na+ and Cl- ions.  The problem you're alluding to it the oxidation of the Cl- ions into chlorine gas.

What you want are ions you can have in solution that won't oxidize/reduce themselves before the hydrogen and oxygen.

I'm not EXACTLY sure what ions you could use for this particular purpose, but I can list off some common household products you could add to water, to make the solution electrolytic.

Vinegar - Dissociates into H+ and acetate (CH3COO-) ions
Epsom Salt - gives Mg2+ and SO42-
Lemon Juice - High in Citric, Ascorbic acids...both produce ions in solution

And the other thing is, just plain tap water is usually pumped with enough minerals and stuff to conduct electricity.  That's SUPER easy :P

Offline jdurg

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Re:conductivity
« Reply #2 on: September 23, 2005, 01:35:15 PM »
The sulfate ion has a hard time being oxidized so any type of sulfate is generally a very good electrolyte.
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