Can Hydrogen be made at home from tap water?

Question

What power source? What water, if not tap water?

Some power sources and waters are better than others.

Answer 1

Sure, this is easy, but you should only do very small amounts.

Water is H2O so if you run a direct current through it it will decompose into Hydrogen and Oxygen. Just put some water in a bowl and lead in a wire from the + pole of a small battery (say, a 9 volt) and another wire from the - pole. You might want to put a very tiny amount (just a few grains) of salt into the water. When the current starts you will see some tiny bubbles form at the ends of the wires. The bubbles at the negative wire are hydrogen atoms that are collecting electrons from the wire. The bubbles at the positive wire are oxygen atoms that are giving up electrons to the wire. You get twice as many bubbles of Hydrogen because it is H2O, right?

Why should you only do this in very small amounts? Because hydrogen is flammable, and if you get it mixed with oxygen it is very flammable... even mildly explosive. A large quantitiy - say more than a small test tube full could cause a real problem... it might blow up the test tube and shatter glass in your eye or start a fire.

Why should you only do this with a small battery? Because a large battery will split up too much and you will have a potential explosion.,. and if you use alternating current (like house current) then instead of getting hydrogen at one wire and oxygen at the other, you might get a mixture of H and O at both wires. That would be bad!

In general it is a pretty bad idea to fool around with this stuff outside a chemistry lab where you dont have proper training or proper safety equipment. If you are interested in this stuff, take some courses in chemistry at your local college.

By the way, this is not how most hydrogen is made. usually it is made commercially by a different process called steam re-forming. That is more complicated.

Answer 2

The power source should give a potential difference greater than 1.2 V to be able to convert water to hydrogen and oxygen. The electrodes should be made from graphite or stainless steel to avoid side reactions and the water should have some non reactive electrolyte added to it so that there is a significant current flow through the cell (potassium nitrate would do).

Answer 3

Tap water may lack the conductivity to allow for a complete circuit, so adding an acid, a base or a salt is advised. Traditionally, potassium hydroxyde is used, but table salt will do, except that it might corrode the electrodes if those are iron, for instance.
You also need DC, so that requires a DC power supply or a battery, to run the electrolysis. And the reaction can be quite slow.
See link for more details.

Answer 4

Yep. What i did was make it salt water with magic salt, then put a jar upside down in my deep tray of water. I then put a tube up into the jar and sucked the air out, as the water level rose.

Then i got a (torch-useless) 9v battery hooked wires from the terminal into the salt water. the one that bubbles twice as much is the hydrogen so i put the wire under the jar and it slowly filled up. give it a few hours!!!!

I have a jar with me now does anyone know what i can do with it haha!!!!!!!!

Answer 5

yea you need two test tubes a big beaker or somethign like it and a 9volt battery
secure the test tubes on each of the poles and fill with water!