What happens when hydrogen is released into the air, but is not burned?

Question

I was doing an experiment with water electrolysis, and I'm wondering, if I collect a test tube full of hydrogen, and release it into the air, without igniting it, what will happen? And if I release it outside, will there be enough heat to get the reaction going? (It's around 96 degrees Fahrenheit here today, or around 35.5 degrees Celsius.) I want to release the hydrogen when I'm finished, but I don't know what will happen. Thanks!

I just saw the first answer, and thanks for all your people's help, but you're saying hydrogen will form to make water without ignition?

So if I collected hydrogen in a test tube and released it, I would have to ignite it to get it to react violently?

Answer 1

Gasous hydrogen is reasonable stable, so it's likely to rise to the highest levels of the atmosphere in the absence of any reactions. However, it does have a likelihood of reacting with free radicals and with ozone, so it might have some kind of limit in the upper atmosphere.

Answer 2

Hydrogen will not combust without an ignition source. If you collect it in a test tube and then put a lighted splint or long match inside the tube, it will burn very quickly with the classic 'squeaky pop'.

As some people have already said, hydrogen released into the atmosphere will rise and disperse. Lightning strikes, unless you released a vast amount of it, will not cause it to combust (the molecules will disperse far too fast). The person who said it would poison the ecology and damage the ozone layer is talking rubbish -- hydrogen is neither an ozone depletor nor toxic.

Answer 3

It will rise very fast high into the atmosphere, some molecules will react with oxygen as it rises to form water, these reactions will decrease the higher up they go as it gets colder higher up. the unreacted hydrogen will escape the earths gravitational field and drift into space, never to be seen again. If there was say a lightening storm however, the energy produced would cause all the hydrogen to react

Answer 4

Nothing will happen when mixed with atmospheric gases. The concentration of hydrogen will be too low to react even if a source of ignition is present. If you try to ignite a tube of pure hydrogen, it is unlikely to burn due to a lack of oxygen. If you mix the pure hydrogen with sufficient oxygen and ignite it, it will explode ... so i wouldn't try that. Just allow the hydrogen to mix with the atmosphere - keep a window open though!

Answer 5

I did that experiment too (in Physical Science class). The hydrogen just mixes into the atmosphere, tending to move into the upper atmosphere because it's less dense than air. You need to concentrate the hydrogen and expose it to an ignition source to cause it to react with atmospheric oxygen.

Answer 6

If you released hydrogen into the atmosphere it would have to be an enormous amount to even make a impact as it would be so diluted with all other chemicals and compounds that are present in the Earth's atmosphere.

Answer 7

It will poisen the birds and then break down the ozon in the upper layers of the atmosphere, this will cause people to get skin-cancer when relaxing in the sun

Answer 8

Being very light thr hhydrogen will rise quickly. It will also combine with nearby oxygen molecules to form water.

Answer 9

Hydrogen is pretty reactive so it will soon react with other substances,including oxygen.

Answer 10

the fact is it is less heavier than air and it would rise up