Australia's Science Forum

Hi all,
can any of my colleagues let me know how long it takes for them to obtain an amount of hydrogen and oxygen with their voltamater?
We have new electrodes and although a decent size I would have thought, does not produce as fast as our old (broken) ones.
The current size of the platinum in the electrodes is approx. 10mm x 0.4mm and takes an hour to produce only a centimetre or two of hydrogen and 1/2 that amount of oxygen.
We are using 0.1M sulfuric acid in the voltameter.
I would be very grateful.
Have a great weekend,
Cheers,
~Robyn

You might need use stronger acid. I use 4M sulphuric acid (Only for demo by teachers) and get plenty gas.
Cheers
Marjan

I agree try stronger acid.
We use 2M very sucessfully here.
Helen

thanks guys - we used to use 2M sulfuric and we got out of the habit. Will try again, thanks
~R

If I want faster production of gas, I ramp up the voltage on the power source