Using Aluminum Multivoid tubes for the Stan Myers system

[JackDaniels]

Hi All,

I noticed that almost every post and video talk about the tubes being used in Electrolysis of Water to be made out of non magnetic stainless steel, any particular reason why aluminum has been disregarded, It is non magnetic and doesnt corrode with water.

My company uses patented multivoid tubes made of AL 6063 - T6 for making pallets, I feel that it would provide a much better surface area. You guys are the brains maybe you can find a use of it in this project. Snaps of our pallets are available at www.toropallets.com and the customize page will give you a good idea of how the tubes are. The present dimension we use are 6mm x 100mm - Rounded edges - extuded upto 6 meters.

Ps. has anyone thought about combining Ultrasonics with Electrolysis? ie vaporize to .2 microns and then split?

leave me a message at endanger(at)hotmail.com if someone thinks it can be used.

JD.

[Gearhead]

Contrary to many who think that aluminum is corrosion resistant, it is not.  The surface of aluminum must be passivated in some way to inhibit corrosion.  Often aluminum is anodized which is an electrical etch, colorizing and a seal coat process.  Raw aluminum corrodes very quickly in the presence of water and  much more with any electrolyte that might be added to the system.

The combination of sodium or potassium hydroxide with aluminum produces a vigorous reaction producing hydrogen.

[Farrah Day]

Hi Jack

I hope to be getting hold of some aluminuim tubes early next year to compare against my ss ones.

I'm not sure why GH says that aluminium is not corrosion resistant and needs to be passivated as, I believe that, like stainless steel, aluminium forms its own protective oxide layer when exposed to the air (or oxygen), and hence self passivates. GH talks about aluminium not being corrosion resistant, but that can be said about most things in an unsuitable environment.  Conditioning stainless steel in an electrolyser causes some form of corrosion to take place on the cathode during this process. 

Aluminium was the preferred metal used in the old 'wet electrolytic capactitors', and it was the protective oxide layer that was used as the dielectric, so contrary to what GH says I think it is worth at least considering experimenting with, especially as Meyer allegedly only used tap water. I know there is someone working with aluminium electrodes at present - I think the Al oxide layer is likely better than the oxide layer of ss as it would appear to be thicker. Am I right in thinking that anodising will thicken the oxide layer further, which enables it to be stained for cosmetic purposes?

Of course the oxide layer is likely to be reduced off the cathode similar to the ss oxide layer when used in a wfc, but using aluminium as the anode might be very interesting, as it could be far more effective.  It might mean that the conditioning required of ss to get this insulating layer on the cathode might not be necessary.

At present, I'm quite sure that the depletion of oxygen at the cathode is destroying the protective ss oxide layer, but I'm not sure what is then taking place to create the white coating we get.  Is it due to a reaction with hydrogen,  impurities within the water, or the water itself. The key really, is to find out what is its composition!

SS always seems to have been the metal of choice, mainly probably because of its ability to withstand electrolytes, however, I don't see any immediate problem with Al in tap water.

[Farrah Day]

Got hold of some Ali 2" tube today, so I'll be putting together a test cell from this and keeping everyone updated with results on my 'design and fabrication' thread.

[JackDaniels]

Here is an image of the Tube I'm talking about. This one is already anodized. I think the advantage of Surface area would be tremendous compared to using normal round tubes.

Moreover with speacial treatment we could actually isolate the outside using a rubberized paint or surface coating, should that be required ofcourse. 100mm width, 6mm height, wall thickness of 0.98mm.

Let me know your thoughts.