Thread: Electrolysis again !

Can I increase the concentration of Acetic acid solution by electrolysis ?

It may be possible on a small scale but the process would be slow and very energy-inefficient.

There are better ways. Suppose you tell us the initial concentration of your acetic acid solution and what final concentration you wish to obtain.


Â*

the initial concentration is 5% "vinegar" , and i want to obtain the possible maximum concentration . I just wonder what it will be ?

Â*
As I suggested earlier, this is a slow and inefficient method. You might graually increase the concentration of acetic acid to 10%, then 12%, and keep going as long as you like.

I can't tell you how much concentration you will obtain. You will eventually run into conductance problems, since high concentrations of acetic acid sharply reduce its ionization in solution. And the most valuable products of this method will not be acetic acid but hydrogen and oxygen gases.

If you are working on some sort of thesis, this may make a good topic for research.

Â*

Originally Posted by raed

Can I increase the concentration of Acetic acid solution by electrolysis ?

In cooking when you pickle things, you can take vinegar and boil it down to a more concentrated acid and things pickle in minutes.

Learned that on a cooking show, with that guy that cooks easy things from left overs out of his refrigerator. I pickle olives like that.

Electrolysis will leave contaminants from your electrodes, unless you can use a marble electrode, or some other kind of electrode that does not disintegrate or corrode into your mix.

We used to use marble or man made stone electrodes in plating vats. To plate large amounts of silver out of solution, from giant agitating vats.





Sincerely,


William McCormick

You can't change the concentration of acetic acid without either adding more or else removing some of the solvent.

I'm not sure if you exclusively want to use electrolysis or are open to other options, but if you are then distillation may be another route to explore. The boiling points of acetic acid (118*C methinks) and whatever it's mixed in are bound to be different, therefore enabling you to separate them. You won't get 100% acetic acid but it'll be more efficient than electrolysis.