Material for clean Electrolysis of H2O ?

Question

Are there any materials out there that would give me a clean and efficient method of electrolysis? So far i have been using the graphite from pencils and its very dirty and i have to keep replacing the anode. So any solutions?

Answer 1

It is really the anode (+) which you need to worry about; the cathode can be most any reasonable choice of metal.

Some inert metal (like Platinum) would be best, but this is probably way to expensive for your tastes.
A cheaper option which will still work reasonably well is stainless steel.
Copper would be a poor choice, as would Iron, Aluminum, Lead, and many other metals. Do small experiments on your own and see what happens when you try a new metal.

Carbon/graphite electrodes are actually not so bad, but you need a better source than pencil lead.
If you can get some Carbon welding rods or big graphite blocks, those would work much better. You can soak the graphite in linseed oil, this will make them more resistant to erosion.

The choice of electrolyte is important too.
I would avoid using table salt (Sodium Chloride) since that means that, corrosive, Chlorine gas would be produced at the anode. Sodium or Potassium Hydroxide is a pretty choice for an electrolyte.

What the corrosion rate really depends on is the current passing through the electrolytic cell. The higher the current, the faster the corrosion. But then again, the current also dictates just how fast the water is split up into Hydrogen gas and Oxygen gas.
Find a balance which will work for you.
Also, using a larger anode will "spread" the current out and lower the "current density". Especially with carbon/graphite electrodes, a lower current density will slow corrosion.

Answer 2

Any good conductor will give you electrolysis. Copper, Silver, heck basically anything that won't rust.

Graphite from pencil lead is a very poor choice because not only does graphite only conduct in one plane, but in pencil lead it's randomly arranged so half the time it will conduct, the other half it won't, and that will cause it to heat up, and dissolve into your water. Heck just sticking the bare wire that your pencil lead is connected to into the water will probably give you cleaner results.

Answer 3

any metal platinum is probably the best although you could use copper. i found that if you acidify the water it workes alot better and it doesn't really do much to the water because all your doing is adding H+ ions

Answer 4

Platinum anode?

Answer 5

Expensive, but platinum. In fact you won't actually lose any of the metal.

Answer 6

any metal will do ie any noble metal and u must acidify the water bcoz pure water is a bad conductor

Answer 7

You could use Platinum...Although it is rather expensive