Hydrogen!

[iv81]

I would suggest everyone to use a 9-12V DC adapter instead of batteries. (saves time and battery life)

 

And exchange Aluminum with Zinc if working with HCl

[Skinflint]

I bought several sheets of zinc metal at a scrap yard a few months back for use in making H2. Aluminum almost always gets so hot that the HCl boils, especially when it is from an aluminum can. Like iV81 says, Zinc is much better. When using Aluminum I sometimes get so much acid vapor in the balloon that it doesn't even float! Make sure that the reaction bottle is submerged in cold water to keep the temperature down. It helps a lot.

 

And Swany was right about me having a bottle explode when I was making a hydrogen torch. I had done it before and it was very cool. The hydrogen would go out through a plastic tube then a small copper pipe. When it burned it would turn BRIGHT blue from the copper pipe. I'm sure the HCl vapors also helped. One time I was lighting it while the hydrogen had just begun to bubble up. There was stilllots of air in the glass bottle so the bottle exploded really loudly. I was deaf for about about 30 seconds and had glass slice one of my knuckles. Also got covered in a bit of acid. I got four stitches on my left hand. That was definitely a dumb move on my part. I should have waited much longer to light it.

 

Edit: Sorry I guess I didn't realize this thread is kinda dead. Well, anyways... be safe.

[Flamethrowa]

For electrolysis, avoid chloride salts, as you will produce mostly chlorine, and not oxygen. You want an ion less (or is it more?) reactive than oxygen, so a polyatomic such as sulfate should work pretty well. In addition, chlorine will quickly erode the electrodes, even if they are made with copper. Oxygen should take quite a bit longer to act on copper (am I right?)

[gwx]

Yes it burns in an orange flame.

 

I made it by putting a balloon over a 1.5 litre bottle. I put the drain cleaner fluid ( HCl ) inside and added aluminium foil. The baloon expanded and it was H2 gas.

 

I tied the balloon, attached it to a sparkler, and I lit the sparkler. As the sparkler lost weight, the balloon lifted, and it burst mid air with orange flame. Loud boom.

 

I guess some oxygen must have diffused in or else it would not have a boom.

[pa_pyro]

I have only ever made one oxy/acetylene balloon. I used calcium carbide to generate the acetylene and hydrogen peroxide and yeast to provide the oxygen. First I added the hydrogen peroxide to a small bottle then,the dry chemcals and quickly put a water balloon on top. It was louder than any ground or aerial salute I have ever made, and unfortunately I was only 10 feet away...AHH MY EARS

 

update: finally received kmno4 works much better as a catalyst.

[pa_pyro]

Yes it burns in an orange flame.

 

I thought hydrogen burned blue-white? Maybe hcl vapor affects the color.

[Mumbles]

I think it depends on what kind of mix it's in. Alone it will burna bit orange, or even a bit red looking. With oxygen in a realatively stoichiometric mix it's white or blueish. Hydrogen only has 3 spectral lines. Red or redish orange, blue and violet. As far as colors go, red is the most prominant, possibly because it is the easiest to form.

[XenoN]

For making hydrogen I always use NaOH/Al. I then bubble the gas through water. I have heard you can bubble it through sulfuric acid to dehydrate the gas. Another experiment with flammable gases i like is hooking a bubbler up to a chlorine source then placing it under water. Drop a piece of calcium carbide into the water. When the bubbles of chlorine and bubbles of acetylene collide they detonate. Its pretty cool. Though excess chlorine is made so do this outside. Also i beleive acetylene is only required in a ratio as low a 3:97 acetylene/oxygen in a balloon to ignite. Though i am not positive about that ratio for i heard it from an unreliable source.

[Boomer]

Then why don't you calculate it?

 

One C2H2 needs five O to form 2 CO2 + H2O. That's 2.5 mol O2, or 2.5 times the volume of C2H2 used. Makes 28.5% acetylene in the perfect mix (1/3.5). Now that was hard eh?

 

The 3% are probably the lowest limit where it *can* be ignited.