Experiment: Electrolysis

Electrolysis is a process of using electric current (Generated by any means) to artificially separate elements in a compound. The pure elements (Or new compounds in some cases) can therefor be purified where no chemical reaction can yield them.

One of the most basic electrolysis experiments is electrolyzing water. Water is Hydrogen Oxide, or H2O (Meaning two Hydrogen, one Oxygen). The most basic way to do this experiment is take a 9-volt battery (The small square kind), hook a paper clip on each lead (But don't let them touch!), then submerge both leads in water. Bubbles will form on both paper clips, but one should have twice as many bubbles, as water is "H2O" there is twice as much Hydrogen than Oxygen. If you change the setup a little bit, you can easily make these electrodes go into a container, and store your precious Hydrogen and Oxygen!

This is my setup. It's hard to see because it's in a clear bowl sitting on carpet, sorry about that, but I have insulated wire (coated in plastic) with a small portion of the insulation (plastic) stripped off at the end, because bubbles will only form on the conductive metal part. After making sure my two glass vials where FULL of water, I stuck the wires into them as to catch every tiny bubble of Hydrogen and Oxygen.

I fill the vials with water because one Hydrogen starts forming, I don't want there to be any air mixed in, as air has Nitrogen and Oxygen and it would be impure, but because water is a liquid and not a gas, it is easily pushed out by the Hydrogen. Make sure you put the cap on the vials BEFORE taking them out of the water! You don't want any air mixed with your newly isolated elements.

So this is a very basic process for "Isolating" (purifying) the elements Hydrogen and Oxygen, and can quite easily be done at home. I intend to make a much better system for this though, and maybe sell pure Hydrogen or Oxygen samples later, if anyone wants them that is.

This is not my post on either Hydrogen or Oxygen, because I'm still collecting more interesting samples for them, and want to wait until I have the best array possible. I can get a sample of Hydrogen that's radioactive, and is sealed in a glass vial with chemicals that glow because of the radioactivity! However I can't afford that just yet... So it will be a while.

Thanks for reading!

~Ben

Some News

I just ordered 122 small glass vials to store my samples in, I won't be able to post gas elements until they get here, as I cannot store them. Because I ordered so many vials, they where relatively cheap per piece, but quite the price for the whole batch, and if anybody needs just one or two, I might consider resale.

I will also be putting a slideshow of a few of my favorite samples on Youtube soon, probably by tomorrow, just to show what's coming. Link will be posted

Also I've put a tab to the right that is my current list of interesting samples I'd like to purchase. Unfortunately, I can afford practically none of them as of now, but most are not necessary samples, merely interesting uses or Isotopes. If you really want to see me get them, you can donate through paypal at the bottom of the list, there is no minimum donation, and everything goes towards this blog.

All the best,

~Ben