Since solar energy is receiving large amounts of funding these days, I thought I'd explore its connection to electrochemical technology. So I thought of John Bockris' book on the hydrogen economy, which I had not yet read ("Energy: The Solar-Hydrogen Alternative" by J. O'M Bockris, Halsted Press, New York, (c) 1975, ISBN 0-470-08429-4, LC# TJ810.B58, Dewey Decimal # 333.7). I got a copy from the San Jose Public Library. I was astonished to see how comprehensive and timely it is. Bockris covers all the existing solar technologies and their alternatives as well as discussing methods of hydrogen generation and transport. The main idea of the book is that one can generate hydrogen from solar energy and transport the hydrogen to the point of use. And one method of producing hydrogen is by using the electrochemical technology of electrolysis.
The book falls short on new solar technologies, such as CIGS solar cells, but that's to be expected considering when it was written.
I plan to read through the whole book. Should be an eye-opener.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Cleaning 1
I wanted to investigate whether electrochemical cleaning worked well for household applications. I thought that if I used baking soda as the electrolyte in an anodic cleaning experiment that I could generate a lot of oxygen and carbon dioxide at the surface to blast the soil off. The carbon dioxide should be formed by decomposing the baking soda in the acidic region close to the surface of the anodic sample. So I tried the following experiment.
I added 2 tablespoons of baking soda to about 2 cups of tap water in a 1 quart stainless steel pot at room temperature. As a test sample I put Nutella on a stainless steel knife. I connected the pot and the knife to a 3.7 VDC, 340 mA power supply and inserted the knife in the baking soda solution. [The knife was anodic and the pot was cathodic.] Some bubbling occured but the Nutella did not instantly come off the knife, as I had hoped. Instead, it seemed to slowly remove the Nutella from the exposed edges of the stainless steel surface.
That did not work out well, so I added a few drops of dishwashing detergent. This made the evolved bubbles smaller but did not speed up the process.
I tried putting a thin film of corn oil on another stainless steel knife and inserted it in the baking soda/detergent solution. This removed the oil film after a few seconds of immersion.
Conclusions:
1. A baking soda/detergent solution can anodically remove thin films of soil.
2. Said solution cannot remove heavy soil (like Nutella) in a short time.
Further work:
1. Quantify the current density on the next experiment and see how it affects results.
2. Quantify the thickness of the soiling agent used, if possible.
I added 2 tablespoons of baking soda to about 2 cups of tap water in a 1 quart stainless steel pot at room temperature. As a test sample I put Nutella on a stainless steel knife. I connected the pot and the knife to a 3.7 VDC, 340 mA power supply and inserted the knife in the baking soda solution. [The knife was anodic and the pot was cathodic.] Some bubbling occured but the Nutella did not instantly come off the knife, as I had hoped. Instead, it seemed to slowly remove the Nutella from the exposed edges of the stainless steel surface.
That did not work out well, so I added a few drops of dishwashing detergent. This made the evolved bubbles smaller but did not speed up the process.
I tried putting a thin film of corn oil on another stainless steel knife and inserted it in the baking soda/detergent solution. This removed the oil film after a few seconds of immersion.
Conclusions:
1. A baking soda/detergent solution can anodically remove thin films of soil.
2. Said solution cannot remove heavy soil (like Nutella) in a short time.
Further work:
1. Quantify the current density on the next experiment and see how it affects results.
2. Quantify the thickness of the soiling agent used, if possible.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Purpose of this Blog
The purpose of this blog is to record and highlight my independent electrochemical work and investigations. Independent means that the work and events recorded herein are based on my own funds and time and are not a part of any commercial work I may be doing for an employer or client. As such, the experiments and research will be on an ultra-low budget. They will usually also deal with topics that are not applicable to commercial/industrial settings and are for the purpose of satisfying my curiosity. T. Dinan, 3/16/08.
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