Thread: Electrolysis of water - plasma

Hello everyone,

First post on the forum so please don't get mad if it's in the wrong place.

I'm interested in running some electrolysis experiments on water (with a salt obviously) and making a plasma (cuz plasma's are cool and glow ). I've looked around google and youtube for what sort of voltage and current I'll need to get a plasma started (I'm running the experiment at room temp and with just atmospheric pressure) but every other site/video I get is some cold fusion conspiracy or some guy telling me that "The Cell" is the solution to the earth's energy problems... Anyways anyone have any idea on how low a voltage/current I can use? Most of what I've found requires 200+ volts (and <0.5 amps) which could be seriously dangerous on something I build myself. I don't need to do this on a large scale or anything, I was thinking along the lines of 100-200 cm3 of water with baking soda (cuz that's easily available).

Anything's helpful. Avoid the hate if I said anything un-scientific/wrong, only in high school.
Antoine

I'm a bit confused. From what I remember about doing electrolysis back in High School (A long time ago, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away), no salt was required, just a low DC voltage (maybe 12 V IIRC). What is created are Hydrogen and Oxygen molecules (H2 and O2).

Creating a plasma from H2 and O2 would likely result in a loud bang, and the destruction of most of your equipment, since the H and O would then recombine to create water.....or do I have something wrong here?

Salt makes it a lot easier to electrolise water. 12 V would be enough to form H and O, but I want to get a plasma. I calculated, I need over 200 V for the experiment I want to run. A little skeptic.

I don't see the connection between electrolysis and plasma. Do you want to use electrolysis to generate a gas (hydrogen or oxyegn?) and then use that gas to generate a plasma? Electrolysis only needs a low voltage, plasma requires a very high voltage (or high temperature). And typically, a low pressure as in, say, neon lights.

if you use stainless steel you will make a noxious combination called chromium and nickle percolate !! very nasty poison!