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Is this a sign of progress?


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Posted

Hi everybody,

I built my first electrolysis setup 3 days ago and it has been running on NaCl for the same time. I noticed some weird orange stuff on the cathode, and i dont think its rust, and the anode has some white stuff on it, maybe already some chlorate?

I am using a Ti Cathode and a graphite anode at 5v 12A. I know how terrible this setup is, but its just a first test. another question, does it matter if i use salt that contains iodine?

 

If anyone can help me with this, I would be very thankful

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Posted

The yellow mess is most likely corrosion of the croc clip, or it's plating finish. The Ti electrode seems rather small for 12A. You do really need a lid with seals for the electrodes to pass through so that chloride/chlorate spray doesn't corrode the connections and surroundings -shelf etc.

Posted

The yellow mess is most likely corrosion of the croc clip, or it's plating finish. The Ti electrode seems rather small for 12A. You do really need a lid with seals for the electrodes to pass through so that chloride/chlorate spray doesn't corrode the connections and surroundings -shelf etc.

thanks for your reply! I know that i need a lid, but this is just a little test, so i dont think its gonna be that much of a problem, I can see that there is some Ti coating on the graphite anode, is that a bad thing? will i have to swap out my anode?

Posted

I'll second that on the corrosion of the plating on the clip. Most of those electrical clips are tin plated and stannous (tin) chloride is... you guessed it, yellowish in color. I have used a vinyl "dip" coating found in hardware stores to coat the tops of the electrodes in my cells. It's the stuff used for coating the handles on tools.

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