Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Caution: electolysis of water
Message-ID: <1988Dec20.204917.21249@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <2479@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <849@inuxm.UUCP> <7395@watcgl.waterloo.edu>
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 88 20:49:17 GMT

In article <7395@watcgl.waterloo.edu> awpaeth@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Alan Wm Paeth) writes:
>The caution: avoid poisonous Chlorine gas.
>
>There is a strong temptation to table add salt to decrease the resistivity of
>the solution. Problem is that with NaCl in solution the anode (+terminal) frees
>both O-- Oxygen ions as gas AND CHLORINE Cl- ions (a problem related to half-
>cell potentials). Most of the latter returns to solution yielding a HCL/HOCL
>concoction resembling bleach...

My own experience as a kid, deliberately trying for chlorine, is that it's
virtually impossible to get any noticeable quantity.  Maybe I didn't hit
the right combination of conditions, but even determined electrolysis of
saturated salt solutions didn't yield anything much.  (The commercial
chlorine-by-electrolysis processes use tricks to isolate the reaction
products from the solution.)  And even a pinch of salt can do wonders for
conductivity, which is important for electrolysis.

All that being said, I think I'd check the matter out chemically before
using electrolyzed oxygen for breathing.
-- 
"God willing, we will return." |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
-Eugene Cernan, the Moon, 1972 | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu