Real-Newbie HHO Questions...

[Sprocket]

This scum is probably due to your using sodium bicarbonate. It wastes power and produces carbon monoxide, taking the elcetrolyte to sodium hydroxide. Better to start with NaOH.

The scum is identical in appearance to what already was being produced, only several orders of magnitude less!  Seeing as this was being produced before I ever tried baking soda (the soda just increased current, increasing HHO production and dissolved my SS quicker) I tend to believe that it is being leeched from the SS itself.

I'd still love to understad the physics behind the dissolving spoons - before discovering that the tap-water was the problem, I left the goo settle overnight, and found the majority of it turned a real God-forsaken, bowels-of-hell, pitch-black!!!    btw, my very first experiment involved using one of my perfectly respectable SS saucepans as part of one of the electrodes (triangular pieces in saucepan, not plastic bowl as in pic) with one electrically isolated (obviously).  After about 15min when it become obvious something was amiss, I switched to the plastic bowl.  To cut a long story short, I discovered my saucepan was leaking this morning - it has several tiny pin-holes in it!

[HeairBear]

The particles of metal which travel from the cathode to the anode are in the form of ions. An atom of iron (for example), once acted upon electrically through an electrolyte, is broken away from the base metal and becomes an ion with a negative charge. It travels through the electrically conductive electrolyte and goes to the anode since it has an affinity (attraction) for the positive electrode. At that point the ion will lose its negative charge and either stick to the anode or drop to the bottom of the cell. If the particle is small and light enough, it may become part of the electrolyte solution.

[Athopi]

Thanks, HeairBear... cool to know what is happening.

[Paul-R]

Carbon monoxide? Wastes power? Can you give a link or something to back that up?

Yes: Try this:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Hydroxy/
There has been extensive correspondence on electrolytes in general, and Bicarbonate
of Soda in particular. The carbonate group breaks down to give off CO usually, and this
chemical process absorbs energy better spent on the task in hand. There is a health
issue, obviously, but the main problem is that you end up with NaOH, but not at the right
concentration to give the amperage wanted.
Paul.


















bicv