Department of Energy Argonne National Laboratory Office of Science NEWTON's Homepage NEWTON's Homepage
NEWTON, Ask A Scientist!
NEWTON Home Page NEWTON Teachers Visit Our Archives Ask A Question How To Ask A Question Question of the Week Our Expert Scientists Volunteer at NEWTON! Frequently Asked Questions Referencing NEWTON About NEWTON About Ask A Scientist Education At Argonne Electricity and Voltage 
Name: Joao Carlos Gaspar Carimo
Status: student
Age: 20s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: Around 1999
Question:
how does a considerable high voltage electricity at a very high frequency at about 5 amp continuous could affect electrolysis of water in order to splitti water in hydrogen and oxigen? is it a considerable exothermic reaction? ive heard about a certain tesler experiment that could apparently produce more energy than the one used to generate it using vacum, high voltage and high frequency. if so, how come is it possible?

on the other hand, iv also heard about an Enistein theory about a certain unknown energy that backs up this experiment..

Replies:
It doesn't take a particularly high voltage to split water. There is a threshhold voltage necessary to split water at all. Above that voltage, the splitting will go faster. But voltage isn't all of the story. If you have a sufficient voltage, the current determines the amount of water that can be split. The amount of power (energy per time) that goes into the splitting of water is the product of the votage and current. Efficiency will be the amount of water split per amount of energy used; for maximum efficiency, you will want to use as low a voltage as you can, and a high current. If you use a higher voltage, the extra energy escapes as heat.

Using a high frequency alternating current will actually interfere with water-splitting. In alternating current, the potential constantly reverses itself, and there is a risk that you will also reverse the reaction at each electrode, and turn your newly-made hydrogen and oxygen back into water. For efficient electrolysis, you want direct current. The splitting of water is not an exothermic reaction. It is considerably endothermic. Much heat is released when hydrogen and oxygen recombine to form water.

I have no knowledge of either the tesler experiment or the unknown Einstein theoretical energy.

Richard Barrans Jr., Ph.D.
Chemical Separations Group
Argonne National Laboratory


Click here to return to the Chemistry Archives

NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators, sponsored and operated by Argonne National Laboratory's Educational Programs, Andrew Skipor, Ph.D., Head of Educational Programs.

For assistance with NEWTON contact a System Operator (help@newton.dep.anl.gov), or at Argonne's Educational Programs

NEWTON AND ASK A SCIENTIST
Educational Programs
Building 360
9700 S. Cass Ave.
Argonne, Illinois
60439-4845, USA
Update: February 2012
Weclome To Newton

Argonne National Laboratory