Dangers of water - DO NOT TRY AT HOME

My first attempt.

I fashioned a hydroxy (hydrogen-oxygen gas’s mixture) generator out of a cottage cheese jar from Trader Joe’s. It was really basic. It included 2 electrodes I made out of the metal from aluminum cans. I sanded down the surfaces to get rid of the plastic coating and maximize surface area.

I connected the electrodes to the positive and negative ends of a chord I plugged directly into outlet power with some aligator clips. Obviously checking to make sure the electrodes didn’t touch.

I then added a pipe leading out the top of the cheese can that I attached a balloon to on the other end.

I used hot glue to stick the electrodes to the inside of the lid of the can. 

Once it was all assembled, I simply needed to add the water. I couldn’t just add straight water though, since it was not conducive enough to start electrolysis by itself, so I needed to add table salt to increase the conductivity. The I mixed it up and plugged it all in.

There was a little bit of hydroxy gas’s collected in the balloon, but once I had unplugged the system and went to take off the lid, I was horrified to find the water had turned greenish yellow. 

I think this means the electrolysis also affected the salt ions, leaving behind chlorine ions in solution. This could be dangerous since if the chlorine also escaped in the gas, it would be very toxic (mustard gas). So I discarded the water and the system as a whole since the reaction produced enough heat to melt the plastic the jar was made out of too.

What did we learn?

I need to find some other electrolyte that won’t violate the Geneva convention. And I need to make a more high quality prototype that won’t melt with the heat.