Pepertual Motion - Hydrolysis at 1.24 volts

Capt'n Midnight

Found this

http://www.keelynet.com/energy/hydrogas.htm

Producing Hydrogen at 1.24 Volts!

Here's a little experiment that even a child can safely perform
that proves that there is no 'minimum voltage' for splitting water
into hydrogen and oxygen.

The supposed minimum hydrolysis voltage is 1.24 volts. According to
standard theory, no reaction should take place at room temperature
below this voltage.

This theoretical figure was determined by taking the energy released
per mole when hydrogen is burned. Using that figure, and knowing
how many amp hours are needed to produce 1 mole of gas, they
calculated the theoretical minimum voltage.

In other words, this figure was not determined by first-hand experimentation.

Ok, here's how to do it:
1. fill a small jar with tap water and in it dissolve table salt
until reaching full saturation.
2. Get two pieces of steel to use as electrodes. Two short pieces
of 1 inch wide flat stock were used in the original experiment.
They were spaced about 1/8 inch apart.

3. Hook up a 1.5 volt dry-cell battery to the two plates using a
couple of test leads and then measure the voltage across the
cell plates. You should see some gas coming off the electrodes
and it'll be fizzing. (my measurement showed 1.51 volts under
load)

4. Next, connect a small silicon rectifier diode in series with
the battery and cell. The particular diode I had available
dropped the circuit voltage by about .5 volts. The current will
be quite a bit lower than it was, and the gas production will
be quite a bit slower. But, you should be able to see and hear
the bubbles coming off the plates. (my cell voltage was 1.05
volts during this part of the test.)

Congratulations! Your cell voltage should be lower than 1.24 volts,

yet you are still producing hydrogen and oxygen gas!

At these lower voltages, you will be producing gas at greater
than 100% efficiency according to standard hydrolysis theory!

The reaction in this voltage range is also endothermic. Go figure.

LOL - someone obviously forgot that the voltage drop across a diode is current dependent - roughly 10mV lower when you halve the current - drop the current enough and there is almost zero voltage drop, that's why you can use diodes in digital multimeters.

Still I can't gloat until I've repeated the experiment and proven that it isn't in fact 1.05V and worked out the bond energies.

Many mother boards produce up to 100A at these low voltages - interesting

Blackpanther95

I would of thought 1.24 was the average value. But besides that experiment is flawed for some many reasons.

whizbang

But isn't the theory related to pure water ?

salt added to the water decreases its resistance, hence more current flow per voltage applied.