Hydrolysis

[Penguin]

Yes, it's amateur hour in the chemistry lab, and this bad experiment from the biology lab has gotten a hold of some nifty chemicals!

Well, not quite.  I won't be doing this in the chemistry lab, and as many of you would think, I'm not the result of an experiment gone wrong.  However, I do have half a semester of chemistry under my belt, and I would like to perform hydrolysis.  As far as I can tell, it is a rather simple affair: Insert a DC electrode into NaCl dissolved into distilled water, and collect the bubbling gases.  However, the problem I don't know how to solve is separating the gases in order to obtain pure hydrogen.

If any of the eggheads in here would like to tell me how to perform this feat, I would be glad to make a video of me using the hydrogen to power a torch or perhaps a rocket.  If all else fails, I'll fill balloons with hydrogen, tape burning paper to them; and then let them fly into the sky in order to create Great Balls of Fire.

-Penguin

[F22RaptorDude]

Yes, it's amateur hour in the chemistry lab, and this bad experiment from the biology lab has gotten a hold of some nifty chemicals!

Well, not quite.  I won't be doing this in the chemistry lab, and as many of you would think, I'm not the result of an experiment gone wrong.  However, I do have half a semester of chemistry under my belt, and I would like to perform hydrolysis.  As far as I can tell, it is a rather simple affair: Insert a DC electrode into NaCl dissolved into distilled water, and collect the bubbling gases.  However, the problem I don't know how to solve is separating the gases in order to obtain pure hydrogen.

If any of the eggheads in here would like to tell me how to perform this feat, I would be glad to make a video of me using the hydrogen to power a torch or perhaps a rocket.  If all else fails, I'll fill balloons with hydrogen, tape burning paper to them; and then let them fly into the sky in order to create Great Balls of Fire.

-Penguin

I recall there's a metal that can absorb Hydrogen, I saw this done in  RC car powered by a fuel cell kit, solar panels make water produce hydrogen and oxygen and the hydrogen is absorbed into the fuel cell which stores it as a solid until its needed for the chemical reaction, let me find that kit really quick

[B-17]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

You are brave, Penguin. I know how to make the vinegar and the baking soda go "plouf!!!" but not this (^) of which you speak. I'm finishing up a French science course (Grade 10) exam is next week... Chemistry and Optics= poopoo.

Where does one GET Hydrogen, anyways?

[Penguin]

It's expensive, and the clerk would probably ask too many questions.

-Penguin

[F22RaptorDude]

Penguin here's a link to that rc car with the Fuel cell kit

http://www.horizonfuelcell.com/hobby_rc.htm

[Penguin]

Right, but liberating the hydrogen from those fuel-cells would be ludicrously dangerous.  I have no clue what that stuff even is, let alone how to break the bonds.  If nothing else, I'd need something to replace the hydrogen in the compound that the hydrostix form with the hydrogen.  I guess that potassium might work alright, but then where am I?  Now the bond with the potassium is even stronger.

-Penguin

[Seanaldinho]

The only way I could think of separating them safely would be to freeze them since every gas has a different temp at which they change state. This would be next to impossible though.

[PFactorDave]

Collecting Hydrogen and Oxygen through hydrolysis is pretty simple.  

Use a simple plasitc soda bottle placed top down into your liquid and over your electrode.  The hydrogen will bubble upwards and into the bottle displacing the air in the bottle from one electrode while oxygen bubbles up from the other.  There is no need to separate them.  One gas forms on the positive electrode, the other on the negative.  I forget which is which though.

WARNING!

This can be dangerous!!!!!!  Hydrogen can be explosive.  So can oxygen.  Throw in some electricity and a hormone soaked teenage boy who is unlikely to do the due diligence necessary...  Well, you've seen the Hindenburg film I am sure...  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F54rqDh2mWA

 Study up before you try anything.  There are tons of resources that will tell you how to construct the experiment safely.  By the way...  This is probably the least efficient way to collect hydrogen.  You expend more energy collecting it then you can free by burning it, which is why we aren't all driving cars that are powered this way yet.

I should probably say one more thing for the lawyers...  DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

[curry1]

Collecting Hydrogen and Oxygen through hydrolysis is pretty simple.  

Use a simple plasitc soda bottle placed top down into your liquid and over your electrode.  The hydrogen will bubble upwards and into the bottle displacing the air in the bottle from one electrode while oxygen bubbles up from the other.  There is no need to separate them.  One gas forms on the positive electrode, the other on the negative.  I forget which is which though.

WARNING!

This can be dangerous!!!!!!  Hydrogen can be explosive.  So can oxygen.  Throw in some electricity and a hormone soaked teenage boy who is unlikely to do the due diligence necessary...  Well, you've seen the Hindenberg film I am sure...  

 Study up before you try anything.  There are tons of resources that will tell you how to construct the experiment safely.  By the way...  This is probably the least efficient way to collect hydrogen.  You expend more energy collecting it then you can free by burning it, which is why we aren't all driving cars that are powered this way yet.

This man speaks the truth.  I did exactly this in my 10th grade chem class.  We also put zinc in hydrochloric acid and collected the hydrogen from the reaction.  So many different ways to do this.

[Tupac]

zack1234 needs more pies 

[curry1]

While I wouldn't recommend doing it this way looks like the hydrogen gas forms on the negative side.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyDdEuQafn4

[PFactorDave]

While I wouldn't recommend doing it this way looks like the hydrogen gas forms on the negative side.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyDdEuQafn4

Yup, and that makes sense from a chemical stand point.

[Penguin]

However, I'd need a metal that won't corrode very easily.  Would copper do?

-Penguin

[Dichotomy]

Penguin

how tall are you?  I've got some pine boxes out back of varying sizes just in case 

[PFactorDave]

However, I'd need a metal that won't corrode very easily.  Would copper do?

-Penguin

I seem to recall that when we did it, many hundreds of years ago, we used something like a 6 penny nails (maybe a little larger).