Nuetral Plates: Who wins?!?

[timetowinarace]

Hmmm....is a cell more like a capacitor or a resistor? Great question.

Let review the devices.

RESISTOR
A resistor is commonly composed of a conductor on both ends and the two conductors are separated by a semiconductive material(like carbon).

CAPACITOR
A capacitor is commonly composed of a conductor on both ends and the two conductors are seperated by an insulative material(like air).

Now lets talk about water and a cell. Pure water is very resistive. If we put pure water between to conductive plates the cell will act like a capacitor or a very high value resistor. When we add chemicals to the water, the water becomes less resistive and the cell will act less like a capacitor and more like resistor.

Let's take it a bit further. Correct me if/when I am wrong or misguided.

During electrolysis, an electron is stripped from a H2O molecule, thus breaking the bond of the H2 and the O. Were does this electron go? Does it increase the capacitance of the water?

It seems we now have a bunch of electrons without a home.

Believe it or not, I actually have a purpose for these silly questions.

[dennis13030]

Let's take it a bit further. Correct me if/when I am wrong or misguided.

During electrolysis, an electron is stripped from a H2O molecule, thus breaking the bond of the H2 and the O. Were does this electron go? Does it increase the capacitance of the water?

It seems we now have a bunch of electrons without a home.

Believe it or not, I actually have a purpose for these silly questions.

Hydrogen has one electron. This electron is shared in the H2O molecule. Since there are two atoms of hydrogen in a H2O molecule, there are 2 shared electrons. I think that the applied voltage and current end up pulling the H2O molecule apart and 2 electrons from the supplied current join with the oxygen atom(these electrons are substituted for the 2 that were shared).