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View Full Version : Metal ions in your electrolyte...is there a stabilization point?



randycat99
07-11-2010, 06:25 AM
So if your plates have dissolved a bit to fill your electrolyte with metal ions, isn't there some point where no further amount will dissolve?...or will it continue to dissolve the entire plate even if you add a fresh new one right after another?...or does it become a complicated situation at some point where the metal ions drop out of solution as some other different compound?

Why isn't it a good thing for conductivity if your electrolyte is chocked full of metal ions (particularly of the same metal that your plates are)? It may not look tidy, but shouldn't it work optimally at that point?

What if you pre-saturated the electrolyte directly with metal ions of like element to your plates? Would that discourage/inhibit any further dissolution of your plates?

Say as an example, if you wanted to use copper plates (against the consensus that this choice of metal is very trouble-prone for electrolysis conditions), but you also picked your electrolyte to be a solution of copper sulfate or copper bicarbonate (some chemicals I saw for circuit board projects). Could that be made to work as a useful electrolytic cell?

Naturally, the sulfate or bicarbonate by-products would not be particularly desirable, but the important point is that is there anything stopping us from choosing a copper-something-based electrolyte (copper-hydroxide, for instance) as an ideal companion with copper plates? Maybe some aluminum-something-based electrolyte as a natural match for aluminum plates? Maybe you could go as far as an iron-something-based electrolyte if you wanted to use really cheap iron/steel plates, in lieu of pricey SS plates?

3/325
12-13-2010, 08:59 PM
Have you tried adding ions to your solution? I read an article, not related to hho, that mentioned adding 10 PPM aluminum hydroxide to water increased the conductivity of the water by 35%. However, if you increased the parts per million the conductivity actually decreased.

Another option may be aluminum sulfate as it is water soluble.. but I'm not sure about conductivity. I would think that any conductive metal would make an excellent solution for hho generators.

Lye should not be used with AL electrodes.. it degrades the AL. However, AL + Sodium Hydroxide (lye) + Water will spontaneously create hydrogen without the need for any electricity.