Generating Hydrogen... without Batteries

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Explore Community Submit All Art Craft Food Games Green Home Kids Life Music Offbeat Outdoors Pets Ride Science Sports Tech Generating Hydrogen... without Batteries by icinnamon on August 29, 2007 Table of Contents intro: Generating Hydrogen... without Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . step 1: The Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . step 2: What to do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . step 3: Other capturing ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . step 4: Holding the bottles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . step 5: Explanation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 3 4 4 5 6 6 6 6 http://www.instructables.com/id/Generating-Hydrogen...-without-Batteries/ intro: Generating Hydrogen... without Batteries Generate hydrogen quickly and easily without those costly 6V batteries! Using H20 Electrolysis, generate hydrogen (and chlorine gas) with only water! The setup will take only 5 to 10 minutes, and can be safely left running overnight. Generate bottles of hydrogen with ease! This Instructable is not only my first... it is also for the Science Fair contest. ENJOY!!! Image Notes 1. This is a single molecule of hydrogen. You will be creating a lot ( times a trillion) of these. step 1: The Parts You only need four things: A wall transformer ($4.77), which is available here on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/12V5-Surveillance-Camera-Power-Supply/dp/B0007R4O12/ref=sr_1_9/103-7672438-6241403?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1188382227&sr=8-9 12 Volt Transformer] Water ($0.00), which is usually freely available A bowl ($0.00 - $0.06), which can be replaced with anything that can hold water. A cheap bowl is available here on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Pfaltzgraff-Flower-Garden-Melamine-cereal/dp/B0001GUCCE/ref=pd_bbs_4/103-7672438-6241403?ie=UTF8&s=homegarden&qid=1188382928&sr=8-4 A small water bottle ($0.00 - salvaged) or test tube ($24.99), which is available here on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Shooter-Tubes-Set-With-Stand/dp/B000COCCX2/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-7672438-6241403?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1188383061&sr=8-1 Salt... optional You can complete this project for as little as $4.77 or as much as $29.87. http://www.instructables.com/id/Generating-Hydrogen...-without-Batteries/ Image Notes 1. A 12 volt wall transformer Image Notes 1. Any container that can hold water works. Image Notes 1. Free water Image Notes 1. This will hold the hydrogen step 2: What to do First, put the water in a bowl and mix in salt (optional). The salt will simply increase the speed of the reaction. Next, cut the plug off of the wall transformer. Next, install a fuse to prevent the transformer from breaking in the event of a short. A good fuse is available here on amazon.com. In addition, you can screw on a switch like this. Separate and strip the two wires (you can get a wire stripper here: http://www.amazon.com/Shooter-TubesSet-With-Stand/dp/B000COCCX2/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-7672438-6241403?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1188383061&sr=8-1 ). Plug the transformer in and submerge both leads in water. To enhance production, you can use pencil graphite by sharpening both ends of a pencil. One should be rapidly generating bubbles, which are full of hydrogen. Once you know this works, go ahead and tape the lead that does not generate bubbles to the side of the container (still under water). Next, take a test tube or bottle filled with water and while keeping the bottle/tube filled, submerge the open end under water. This prevents air from entering. Thread the wire that generates bubbles into the tube. Image Notes 1. The two stripped leads. Image Notes 1. This lead is visibly generating anything 2. This lead is generating hydrogen 3. Hydrogen bubbles http://www.instructables.com/id/Generating-Hydrogen...-without-Batteries/ Image Notes 1. The bottle is submerged 2. The leads of one wire extends into the bottle Image Notes 1. The wire going into the bottle 2. A readily available water bottle is used 3. The stripped wire leads step 3: Other capturing ideas Now that you can capture hydrogen, you can also try to capture chlorine gas bubbles (basically oxygen). Simply place a separate bottle over the other lead. This gas is generated much more slowly. If you like explosions, you have two options: Remove the bottle of hydrogen and stick a match inside. BOOM! Use one bottle to capture both gases. This creates the perfect mixture for an explosion. Be careful! Please not that using salt produces chlorine. Because chlorine is heavier than air, it will fall to the ground. Chlorine is a very dangerous chemical that can suffocate you. To prevent a catastrophe, use another bottle/test tube to capture it. Another alternate is to use baking soda instead of salt. This will produce oxygen instead of chlorine. Image Notes 1. Hydrogen explosion step 4: Holding the bottles Always hold the bottles opening-down (as if you were pouring out water). Remember, hydrogen is much lighter than air... it floats up. It does not fall down. I hope you enjoyed this Instructable. While the concept is not new, using a wall transformer is a unique and inexpensive solution. This is a fun experiment... but as with all explosions, be careful! http://www.instructables.com/id/Generating-Hydrogen...-without-Batteries/ Image Notes 1. This is for the science fair contest. Enjoy! Image Notes 1. Hold the bottle like this step 5: Explanation WARNING: Science Content: When current from the wall transformer passes through the water, the water molecules are split into hydrogen and hydroxide ions. The lead with bubbles, which produces Hydrogen, can be explained through the following equation:* 2H2O(l) + 2e− → H2(g) + 2OH−(aq) The other lead, which produces nothing unless a better electrode, like graphite or platinum is used, can produce hydroxide. The formation of hydroxide ions then turn into oxygen (or chlorine if salt water is used). The following equation* defines the reaction: 2H2O(l) → O2(g) + 4H+(aq) + 4e− The overall reaction is defined in the following equation: 2H2O(l) → 2H2(g) + O2(g) NOTE: equations are from here. Image Notes 1. We'll be focusing on these two items. http://www.instructables.com/id/Generating-Hydrogen...-without-Batteries/ Related Instructables Advertisements Customized Instructable T-shirts Comments 50 comments Add Comment view all 83 comments El Mano says: Mar 10, 2009. 4:37 PM REPLY Just so you know, pencil graphite corrodes really easily. I tried it, and after two hours the negative lead looked like it had melted and the positve end was covered in a whitish powder. It's fine for your bowl method, but if you want to make a good electrolysis unit, you'll need some good electrodes. (Sorry, I haven't found any yet. Everything I've tried has corroded really fast.) NeilLizard says: By using salt, the chlorine is realeased, but does the sodium react with the water? what happens to it? May 17, 2008. 3:32 PM REPLY wiebevandomburg.hotmail.com says: if you use salt -sodium chlorine- it will react with the water and form hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide NaCl+H20-> NaOH+HCl Aug 8, 2008. 5:45 AM REPLY sjs229 says: 2NaCl+2H2O>2NaOH+2H2+Cl2 that's the correct reaction Feb 15, 2009. 11:15 PM REPLY j_man51 says: Jan 22, 2009. 7:07 PM REPLY Not even close, water does not react with sodium chloride to produce NaOH and HCl. Neil Lizard is correct, Chlorine gas will be produced at the anode. NASA agrees, http://aquarius.nasa.gov/pdfs/electrolysis.pdf bigD22 says: A wall transformer (free in your basement) Do you have an old cell phone charger? A bowl (free) does anyone not own a bowl? Cost of using your brain (free) Feb 8, 2009. 3:43 PM REPLY berkin says: You don't absolutely have to use a 12-volt transformer. You can use anything higher then that. Jan 12, 2009. 6:04 PM REPLY budsiskos says: i use a 9 volt transformer for my setup and it works great. very quick Feb 3, 2009. 6:10 AM REPLY berkin says: Cool! Feb 3, 2009. 7:13 AM REPLY http://www.instructables.com/id/Generating-Hydrogen...-without-Batteries/ pyroelfears says: Feb 2, 2009. 7:39 PM REPLY you can use any sort of transformer , the higher the voltage and amperage, the faster hydrogen in made. But be careful, high amperage is fatal berkin says: I am pretty educated on the dangers of high voltage and current. Thanks though! Feb 3, 2009. 7:13 AM REPLY Mercurio says: I have a question. How many amps do you need for electrolysis to happen? How many volts? P.S. : what I mean is what's the least amount of amps and volts needed. Nov 24, 2007. 2:26 PM REPLY bylerfamily says: Well I just tried 4 volts and it works great.It is 550 amps. Jan 9, 2009. 9:50 AM REPLY sempri_fi says: Dec 13, 2007. 2:18 PM REPLY 1-3 volts is idea, and as many amps as the water will pull is best, having upwards of 50 or so will work for even the best setups. bylerfamily says: Would 4 volts work? Jan 5, 2009. 6:23 AM REPLY Mercurio says: Thank you, but I still want to know the amount of amps. I'd appreciate a thorough response. Again thank you. Dec 15, 2007. 1:05 PM REPLY bylerfamily says: (removed by author or community request) Dec 8, 2008. 2:00 PM Nirgal38 says: Nov 23, 2008. 12:15 PM REPLY On the occasions I've tried this (both with batteries and with a AC/DC transformer stepped down to about 6V), I get plenty of hydrogen but very little chlorine if I use copper electrodes. What I wind up with is copper chloride which is what turns the water green. Your electrode will eventually dissolve in a cloud of green, scummy-looking water. I also assume that a certain amount of the sodium left over combines to produce a dilute form of sodium hydroxide (lye). When I've used electrodes that didn't readily combine with chlorine (stainless steel, etc.), I did get free chlorine gas. Very stinky and very bad for the lungs. It's not the fact that it displaces oxygen; chlorine will readily combine with certain materials including the linings of the throat and lungs. Imagine an inhaler filled with some kind of corrosive chemical and you get the idea. I've never tried this with baking soda as an electrolyte to get oxygen but I think I'll give it a shot. ronnyboyopos says: thanks for the info, now i can build my hydrogen generator! Jun 16, 2008. 7:19 AM REPLY glorybe says: Jul 17, 2008. 7:08 PM REPLY There is a flaw in the explanation. In order to produce hydrogen you are forced to produce oxygen. You can not produce one without the other. And you do not want to produce hydrogen and oxygen mixed in the same container. If you do an implosion is more than a bit likely to occur and that can be dangerous. What is called for is DC current. Oxygen will form over one wire and hydrogen over the other. jimmy dean says: Most 12 volt wall generators are DC. Oct 31, 2008. 8:35 PM REPLY Dr_Stupid says: fix this section, pictures are too blurry for any reliable reproduction. Jul 16, 2008. 1:15 PM REPLY http://www.instructables.com/id/Generating-Hydrogen...-without-Batteries/ allstarn07 says: Ive always have used baking soda and it works alot better in my opinion. Jul 1, 2008. 1:42 PM REPLY Blue_Flame says: Hey! You nicked the "Warning: Science Content!" from Mythbusters! Anyway, nice instructable!! Jun 8, 2008. 2:44 AM REPLY temp says: Jun 3, 2008. 1:48 PM REPLY if you used a water bottle filled with air instead on one filled with water wouldn't you slightly pressurize the hydrogen. ill explain. if you put the hydrogen lead in a bottle filled with air the hydrogen will float to the top and force air out. a little pressure would have to build up for the hydrogen to push the air out of the bottle. i'm not talking about 100psi but like .05psi or something like that. this probobaly didn't make since but that's the best way i can explain it. perlpower says: Aug 29, 2007. 11:00 AM REPLY O and chlorine is NOT the same as oxygen, it is toxic and does not help explosions, DO NOT BREATHE IN CHLORINE!!!!! it WILL fill your lungs and starve you of oxygen. The good thing about it is that it is heavier than air so this is hard to do. emuman4evr says: Apr 25, 2008. 12:57 PM REPLY In the event of this happening shouldnt you stand on your head and exhale alot so the chlorine sinks back down your throat? Just a theory... VIRON says: Mixed Hydrogen and Chlorine will spontaneously explode without ignition. Breatheing chlorine or hydrogen chloride will surely cause a life threatening trouble breatheing and instant loss of consciousness. Carelessness almost absolutely guarantees that this will happen. How about using baking soda instead of salt? Using copper wire is OK, it may turn the saltwater green by making copper chloride. The positive wire just dissolves slowly. You can protect the transformer from shorting wires with a 1 amp fuse, or a cheaper small 10 ohm resistor (brown black black). If you do short it, then the fuse or resistor burns up instead. Aug 29, 2007. 12:08 PM REPLY icinnamon says: When you say spontaneously explode, do you mean it can happen at any moment? I thought you needed a match... Aug 29, 2007. 3:11 PM REPLY VIRON says: H and O needs a match. H and CL just goes boom whenever it feels like it. Aug 29, 2007. 4:11 PM REPLY icinnamon says: Hmmm.... I just tried setting off both with a flame and nothing happened... Aug 29, 2007. 5:04 PM REPLY triggernum5 says: Apr 10, 2008. 4:59 PM REPLY Hydrogen and Chlorine don't spontaneously react, they need a near UV photon to initiate under otherwise presumably safe conditions at STP.. Its pretty dang close to spontaneous though in practise, in all cases, you should separate the gasses whatever they be if you're dealing with much more than test-tube fulls.. BTW, the chemistry outlined isn't exactly correct.. Its a redox reaction, not an acid base thing.. merseyless says: if it needs near uv wouldn't sunlight or most other household lights do this Apr 25, 2008. 12:42 AM REPLY icinnamon says: As with all projects of this nature, it can be dangerous. Common sense can be the best protective action... My water turned green, but that doesn't really matter Aug 29, 2007. 12:53 PM REPLY http://www.instructables.com/id/Generating-Hydrogen...-without-Batteries/ Brandon121233 says: Aug 29, 2007. 7:50 PM REPLY First of all, you NEED to add in a part about putting a quick break fuse to the system, dealing with a wall outlet and ion rich water is NO joke regardless of weather or not it is stepped down to a lower DC voltage, accidents do happen and walworts can malfunction when used in a manner they were not intended for, resulting in serious injury or possibly even death. Secondly, if my chemistry knowledge serves me right, no chlorine gas would be released, just hydrogen and oxygen. When the salt dissolves it dissolves into Cl- and Na+ ions, this makes the water conductive and plays no other significant part in the reaction- meaning it is a catalyst ( no amount of the substance is consumed in the reaction, it just lowers the activation energy required to make the reaction possible). (If some chem PhD knows better than me, please correct me, however I have taken my fair share of AP Chemistry classes, so I know my stuff pretty well.) Thirdly, the salt is not optional. Water by itself does not conduct electricity, only when ions (electrolytes) are dissolved in the water does it become electrically conductive. Now if you use regular tap water, it will have a small amount of impurities that are dissolved as ions in the water. But if this was being done in a controlled environment, using distilled water, the salt or other electrolyte would be necessary to make the electrolysis reaction possible. So you should probably start revising your instructable before the deadline for the contest... Britain says: Apr 1, 2008. 9:29 PM REPLY funny _ when I first did this I did it with 120v AC... yea that was a bad idea nothing bad happened at first, but then there was a bright blue light and little balls of molten copper flying every where but I got just a splash of warm saltwater luckily. hehe asdfasdf01 says: I was gonna try 120v AC! Now that I know what's going to happen...... Apr 1, 2008. 10:03 PM REPLY Waggle says: Jan 26, 2008. 8:42 PM REPLY Chlorine will indeed be produced at the anode with hydrogen at the cathode. Many people dispute this concept saying they’ve tried it and never had an issue. I myself tried it and indeed I did not get chlorine gas. I bet you’re saying �Huh?� right now. The key issue here was that when I originally tried this I used copper wires rather than graphite. The copper had the effect of reacting with the chorine at the anode and oxygen was released rather than chlorine gas. If I had used graphite which will not corrode I would have produced chlorine gas. The fact of the matter is, however, that with something like chlorine gas (Which, incidentally, is NOT mustard gas as many people think. Mustard gas has the following formula (ClCH2CH2)2S ) �better safe than sorry�. Use baking soda or a weak solution of sulfuric acid and you're safe. No, sulfuric acid will not result in Hydrogen sulfide being produced. For a great explaination check out http://www.chem1.com/acad/webtext/elchem/ec8.html codydean says: dur...me feels dum now Mar 10, 2008. 9:38 PM REPLY cyberviper42 says: Jan 19, 2008. 9:26 AM REPLY I Agree. In chem class we had an experiment with ionic compounds (Salt is one) and we found the water and salt seperated wouldn't conduct electricity, but when they were mixed, they conducted electricity just nicely Spartan 117 says: Aaron Sep 9, 2007. 9:33 PM REPLY your smart lol, you put that nicley but some chlorine could react with the oxygen making ClO- which is nasty stuff but yeah not chlorine exactly. icinnamon says: I've added those extra safety features. Aug 30, 2007. 12:17 AM REPLY power says: cool.thanks for telling me that you can use the transformer for infinite batteries.my tornado machine always run out of batteries Mar 8, 2008. 7:36 AM REPLY lueebra says: Feb 16, 2008. 8:58 PM REPLY I have done this on numerous occasions, though without a wall wart. I used only a bridge rectifier (though later switched to a car battery charger). For the anode and cathode I used the carbon rod out of D cells partially wrapped with bared copper wire (lamp cord) and then covered the bare wire and the base of the carbon rods with high-temp hard setting hot glue. For collection I used two inverted 2-litre bottles filled with water and anchored a few centimetres above the rods. Mind you, this is well below the waterline in the electrolysis tank. When the H bottle was 3/4 full (or empty, depending on your outlook ;) ) I took it outside, keeping it upside-down, and rested it next to a cinder block. The water coming out was replaced with air, providing the oxidizer. To make a long story short, I lit it, got a loud (but RELATIVELY safe) boom and a metre wide swath of my yard no longer needed raking. I thought the bottle was incenerated in the explosion, but several long seconds later, I heard it coming back down through the trees overhead. Just my nickel's worth of typing for my 2 cents' worth. Though I wish your instructable (and the internet for that matter) was available 20 years ago when I did this. http://www.instructables.com/id/Generating-Hydrogen...-without-Batteries/ rwin says: Jan 18, 2008. 11:11 PM REPLY better late than never, if you use salt to aid reaction for electrolysis you will make a weak sodium hypoclorite solution.. used to treat water. at my plant we have an alarm, for hydrogen not clorine gas pyrotecnix says: how do i avoid making chlorine, if you cant ,do i just capture it like i would for the hydrogen Sep 30, 2007. 6:39 AM REPLY sempri_fi says: Dec 13, 2007. 2:21 PM REPLY you can use baking soda and distilled water, thats about the only way. even if you do just use tap water, if you do it where there is ventilation you'll be fine. i dont know why he even makes a big deal about chlorine as there isnt much in the water to begin with. themasterpyro says: Sep 30, 2007. 1:39 PM REPLY capture it but dont inhale it.chlorine gas like whats made here was used in ww1 by the germans as a poison gas.so as you can tell its deadly heyzuphowsitgoin says: Nov 17, 2007. 4:49 AM REPLY dont use salt... use baking soda because there is no chlorine... it works really well to i got hydrogen and oxygen with a little 9 volt battery... at least i think it was hydrogen and oxygen i tried to light it when it came out but it didnt blow up :( arthaha says: "The salt will simply increase the speed of the reaction" and slowly fill your room with chlorine gas and become deadly should put "Disclaimer: Instructable may result in death" Nov 13, 2007. 9:23 PM REPLY view all 83 comments http://www.instructables.com/id/Generating-Hydrogen...-without-Batteries/