Fun With Plasma

[enki09]

While I was actively experimenting with electrolysis I noticed quite a few cool little effects which might be interesting to follow up on their own. One of them was the addition of an electrical plasma to the electrolysis process. Of course Plasma Electrolysis is nothing new but this is just a relatively easy way to do it. It is also one that makes you think a bit on the nature of electricity and what not so I thought I would tell you about it.

Here is the setup. I was using a 12v battery charger as the power source for my electrolysis cell. The cell consisted of a glass container containing a solution of water and NAOH. My electrodes were thin sheets of food grade stainless. The charger was on the 12v 6a setting.

I introduced a 3rd stainless electrode into the setup between the two which were connected to the charger. The "neutral" electrode was connected to a plastic dowel from which it was suspended. This also gave me an insulated object that I could move the neutral electrode around with while the cell was under power.

I set the experiment up so I could see if anything happened with the neutral electrode. Would it take on a charge? Would electrolysis occur on it? I wasn't sure.

So anyway, I set it up and while I don't think it was producing gas at the neutral electrode I did see a voltage between that electrode and either the anode or the cathode of the cell. That was pretty interesting. I took hold of the neutral electrode by the plastic rod and moved it closer to the electrodes and recorded the voltage differences, etc.

Quite by accident I touched the corner of the neutral electrode to the cathode of my cell and saw a blue spark flash between the electrodes. Ooooooh this is cool, I thought. So I played around some more and was able to hold the spark between the cathode and neutral electrode for as long as I wanted. If you actually touch the two except to strike the arc they kind of weld themselves lightly together so you don't want to do that for too long. But if you maintain the spark you will notice that a lot more bubbles are formed at that arc than anywhere else in the cell.

Is that H2 or just steam from the heat of the arc? Not sure but a 12v 6a arc isn't exactly welding material lol. It is an electrical plasma so whatever is going on , especially in a solution of water and electrolyte ought to be interesting.

Ok so there should be lots of individual points here to talk about. Let's have at it

[innovation_station]

 

nice

i will try some time

ist