[Deepsycher]

Here is what I wanted to ask for a long time. Why does salt in water conduct electricity for a certain amount of time? An experiment I tried ten years ago with a 12 volt battery, light and glass of water with salt. The answer I found is that chlorine and sodium in water has negative and positive charges for conduction. Correct me if I am wrong here about the charges.

I was told that the sodium would run low and the chlorine would turn into gas. Earlier I tried bleach and it worked.

So here is what I want to do:

Buy some balloons.
Fill a flat base round glass tube with bleach small enough to fit a balloon ontop.
Connect each end of one wire between the light and battery into the bleach.
Fit and restrain the balloon ontop to collect the gas.

If this works next thing I am going to have to do is to see what happens with hydrochloric acid. I know it is dangerous but I don't know how dangerous.


Any thoughts?

[SimeSublime]

The HCl will dissolve your wires and you'd end up with hydrogen gas.

[Deepsycher]

I know it is corrosive so I was going to cut the sleeve of the wires as it goes into the glass tube anyway but now I wonder if the gas will melt the balloon too? If that is correct then I'll have to think of another way to capture the gas.

[SimeSublime]

I don't think it would melt the balloon. I just don't know how you plan to conduct through acid. Acids react with metals.

[Deepsycher]

I need looking for something that conducts eletricity through HCL but doesn't corrode in the process.

Just thought of the terminals of a car battery. How about stainless steel will that corrode in acid?


For the bleach experiment:

I put thick bleach in a small wine bottle with two mains copper or copper coloured wires, one bottom, one on the top, taped on the outside with a balloon ontop. I saw a streak of bubbles reaching for the other wire on the top when I connected to the 12 volt battery and led for some minutes.

I am going to try this in the garden tomorrow with something that takes up more energy than the led, paranoid that it might explode.

This post has been edited by Deepsycher: 12 November 2006 - 04:22 PM

[Slade]

Please don't blow yourself up... Be careful, DS.