@@ScrapScience Oh, you got a deal. I think we paid $550 USD, but it’s a big one. And it came mounted on a very nice steel rod (probably from Home Depot). Ha!
Congratulations! It looks a LOT like pyrolytic graphite, it would be interesting it this doped material will do diamagnetic levitation as 'pure' pyrolytic graphite does.
An interesting idea! Just tested it on a set of strong neodymium magnets - doesn't appear to exhibit any tendency to levitate... Though it makes sense I suppose - the diamagnetic constant of diamond is about 20 times lower than that of pyrolytic graphite. Conductivity doesn't seem to have much to do with it.
It won't. Pyrolytic graphite does this because of the high conductivity along the graphene sheets within the graphite. Pyrolytic graphite is extremely well aligned, so the effect is very strong. "Normal" graphite doesn't show this effect because the crystals of graphite are small and randomly oriented.
pyrolitic graphite is more bubbly looking on the surface they do look kinda similar intell you compare them next to each other. The graphite is more gray and looks more molten than like tiny diamonds. Unfortunately, cameras don't do a good job of capturing detail
Im wondering if these were left over from making diamond photodiodes, the substrate was made of boron doped p type diamond with nitrogen doped N type diamond. They had very good UV sensitivity in the UV B and UV C regions. They were used for measuring the energy of KrF excimer lasers.❤
It's possible, but as far as I'm aware, boron-doped diamond used in true semiconductor applications normally requires a much lower boron concentration. Having a boron concentration of above 0.1% is something that's generally done solely for the purpose of making electrodes for electrochemistry, as we need high conductivity over macroscopic distances. Still though, I didn't know these types of semiconductor were used in photodiodes - that's cool!
Yep! For two reasons: 1) It's great at doing the reaction of oxidising chlorate to perchlorate. 2) When using it as an anode, you don't really need to worry much about cell conditions. Other electrodes will degrade significantly if you have small amounts of chloride in the cell or if you continue electrolysing after complete conversion. With this electrode, it's so inert that neither of those things matter. It can even electrolyse chloride all the way to perchlorate in one run with zero issues (something basically no other electrode can do).
Neat! I'm glad to have come across this. In my lab we discovered a new form of carbon that has conductivity about the same as stainless steel and it resists acids and bases. I'll have to try this on our carbon to see how it fares.
Yeah, this is the only sample I could find where the seller was happy to sell to individuals. No doubt there are better deals out there, but I'm just happy to have a piece!
Is this made in pvd? Seems more like a cvd / diffusion process to me. You could probably do it at this scale in a regular chemist's quartz tube vacuum furnace. Edit: cvd gasses are extremely dangerous however, I'd be very cautious attempting this 'at home.' At my work we have to go on supplied air to mess with them, and one of our chemical suppliers of diborane gas in florida blew up last year ☠️
Very cool video. I read paper about synthesis of perbromate using diamond electrode. When I saw title of this video, I thought: "I must see this!" :D. Interesting piece of lab equipment.
I electrolyse the copper out of my spent ferric chloride etchant, using a platinum wire anode, but only with very low current. I leave it for a week with like 10mA. Will the platinum still degrade at this, I wonder? Also it would be informative to see you compare the properties of those anodes to lead acid battery anodes, I hear they’re remarkably chemically resilient. Oh and that window comparison is fascinating, from the perspective of electroplating novel metals. I’ve been looking into electrochemical 3D printing, particularly the ability to print an alloy that changes ratios as you go, being able to add vanadium to a nickel+iron alloy would be handy, but I guess chromium is probably too far away. I think it would be possible to have two electrochemical loops, one that dissolves the metal and another that redeposits it, in the same system using floating power supplies and a properly designed print-head.
In the presence of chloride ions, platinum degradation basically depends on pH. The lower the pH, the faster the degradation. Not sure exactly when it becomes a problem though. The positive electrodes in lead acid batteries are actually terrible as anodes, and reports of their chemical stability are very misleading. It's pretty much a wildly pervasive myth. Due to the way lead acid batteries are designed, the positive electrodes are nothing more than than a lead sponge that has been anodised to form lead dioxide on the surface. Since this is never a perfect coat, the anodes are really no more chemically resistant than lead metal, and they're only really stable in sulfate (and maybe carbonate) electrolytes. Basically any other electrolyte will quickly destroy these electrodes and leave you with a mess of toxic lead in solution. I really wish it weren't such a common myth, because people recommend these anodes all the time without any knowledge of their actual properties - basically convincing people to make a bunch of toxic lead waste. Anyway, sorry for the rant about lead acid battery electrodes, I'm just not a fan of how common the myth is. Basically, these electrodes aren't chemically resistant at all. If I had to add them to the table at 4:11, the sequence would go 'resistant, degradation, slow degradation, degradation'. Can't say I'm very knowledgable on any plating processes, but your investigation sounds interesting!
@@ScrapScience thanks for the reply, I heard that it was the lead oxide that was itself electrically conductive, but it makes sense it wouldn’t be stable outside of that kind of solution. Maybe lead oxide itself could be deposited on a matrix like with an MMO electrode, but that still assumes it’s mechanically stable and electrically conductive enough in that form. I’ve always been pretty wary of lead in solution, so thanks for clearing that up. Next up, buy myself an iridium electrode haha
Depositing lead dioxide on an MMO electrode is actually a very reliable way to make a robust lead oxide anode! From what I've seen, anodes prepared this way are quite good, though they do slowly fall apart mechanically (much like graphite often does). Of course, only if you're brave enough to set up a lead oxide plating bath... I'm definitely not, lol. Iridium... a good choice, haha.
I think you should buy some electrolysis equipment with an anion and proton cation exchange membrane because it is a selective membrane that allows ions to pass through without holes thanks to chemical signals, not a clay pot with lithium holes and is strong. Surely the decomposition side reaction occurs more frequently than the production reaction. This may be the reason you failed to produce hydrogen peroxide ,nitric acid and sulfuric acid from electrolysis. It also helps you create some reactions without the need for an electrolyte solution like fuel cells using hydrogen oxygen
Interesting about the sp2/sp3 hybridization I've heard that graphite is more chemically inert than diamond. I've also heard somewhere that diamond is not thermodynamically stable at RT in air but the reaction kinetics are so slow it is practically stable anyway
I've read a recent article on production of C1 and C2 carboxylic acids with diamond electrodes but thought it is a future tech not really available. This makes me review the article: Arts, Anke, Matheus T. de Groot, and John van der Schaaf. "Current efficiency and mass transfer effects in electrochemical oxidation of C1 and C2 carboxylic acids on boron doped diamond electrodes." Chemical Engineering Journal Advances 6 (2021): 100093.
Yep! Many reactions proceed in very interesting ways on this electrode due to the ability to utilise those hydroxyl radicals. I don't even know where to start with using this thing...
@@ScrapScience I would love to see your results in future. I was exploring production of oxoacetic (glyoxylic) acid. This can be made even at scale by cathodic reduction of oxalic acid (PbO2 electrode) in dil. H2SO4 medium, but the workup and isolation is still challenging, especially due to removal of all the water and avoiding heating above ~40 oC (decomposition to CO/CO2, disproportionation, polymerization) making the compound commercially available mostly just as 50% solution with glycolic and oxalic acids as common impurities (plus minute amounts of glyoxal, glycolaldehyde, ethylene glycol, formic acid and other reduction by-products). Crystalline monohydrate is available but a bit more expensive. I've purchased the monohydrate once and tried preparation of fragrance compounds - it's an excellent electrophile allowing convenient prep. of aldehydes so I was amazed and understood why it is popular as green chemistry alternative to other preparations (e.g. Grignards, var. formylations, chloromethylation). I will try other production methods of the glyoxylic acid (magnesium reduction in cold sat. oxalic acid, cleavage of L-tartaric acid with periodate/hypochlorite) but so far the ozonolysis of maleic acid (fumaric might work, too) and electroreduction of oxalic a. remain the state of the art.
Say, did you ever think of remaking some of your earlier electroplating videos? Last year, I got large graphite thermal pads whichv have been extremely capable and barely experienced degradation because of their uniformity and very high surface area.
Like, that one video I made about copper plating at the start of the channel? It's possible, but I don't think metal plating is really my forte. I know very little about it...
Hey could you please make a video on electrolytically making persulfate? I dont have a lot of knowledge on it but as far as i know you need to electrolyze bisulfate without a membrane , if you electrolyze KHSO4 the insoluable persulfate will form. You will need to electrolyze it with a platinum anode a MMO anode wont work.
I just randomly thought about, can pressures also change how reactions happens? Like, what if you do some electrolysis, but under INSANE pressures, the pressures is like several 100 bar, or higher? or something?
Changing the partial pressures of the reactants/products involved in an electrolytic reaction changes the potentials at which they occur. If we take your example of 100 bar, we can very easily take the water reduction half reaction and plug this 100 bar value for hydrogen partial pressure into the 'Nernst equation'. Doing so tells us that the hydrogen evolution reaction will happily occur at 100 bar with an extra 136 mV of negative potential. You can do the same thing for the oxygen evolution reaction, and you can find that this half reaction will require an extra 68 mV to proceed at 100 bar. Overall, water electrolysis is happy to proceed at these pressures, and will just give you pressurised gasses as a result. You'll just need an extra 0.2 V or so to get the reaction to happen.
hi harry I am making a new chlorate cell in November/ December but I need some stuff for it so I've managed to find the 10v dc converter but I need a power supply that you used in your A SODIUM CHLORATE CELL video ,by that I mean a power supply that can supply at least 5 amps and that can handle a electrolysis for multiple days < so could you comment the name I should search in google to get the result in your privallige I will @ your channel in my video (I'm subscribed)
Glad to hear - a chlorate cell is a great project! Nowadays, I just use a lab bench power supply with adjustable voltage and current. But back when I made my chlorate cells, I was using a current controlled buck converter hooked up to an ATX power supply from an old computer. Hopefully you'll be able to find a similar product.
I'm sorry if I'm asking too many questions but you mentioned that a Platinum anode is not resistant to HCl, HCl can form at anode chamber when doing membrane electrolysis of NaCl would that degrade it too or are the amounts forming too small to cause damage?
It ultimately depends on how you run the electrolysis in that case, but yes, the concentrations of HCl generated under membrane electrolysis of NaCl are not high enough to degrade a platinum anode very quickly. The rate of platinum degradation for chloride electrolysis is going to be a function of pH. With lower pH, the rate increases exponentially.
Are there any electrochemical way of making Ozone other than running O2 through an electric arc because that method has a low efficiency and also the ozone it makes is quite impure and often has a lot of Oxygen and a low amount of ozone I want to make pure ozone because I really want to see the pale blue colour of ozone gas.
Technically yes, you can make ozone by the electrolysis of water if you use the right electrodes and run a high current density. The concentration of ozone you'd get from any DIY setup would be less than what you get from the electric arc method though I'm afraid. This kind of electrolysis will always still favour the production of oxygen instead.
How will you attach it to a conductive isolated connection rod and what material would you choose? Will you now always use this clap thing to attach it to a Nickel strip? You know that your comparison is neither accurate nor is it valid, because on your doped piece was Nickel also contributing and your Ruthenium electrode had more surface area and so on.
Titanium is generally the substrate of choice for electrodes like this. It's nature as a so-called 'valve metal' makes it ideal for connections to active anode materials since it is extremely chemically resistant and passivates under anodic conditions. Eventually, I'll buy some small titanium bolts, nuts, and washers to make a good, stable connection. I've used titanium in this video to serve as the connecting piece, not nickel. I didn't go into it much for the sake of simplicity, but I took great care in trying to keep the anode surface areas very consistent in each test. First, the BDD piece is attached with a piece of titanium, as stated before, the complete passivation of which occurs very quickly. Hence, the connecting material should not contribute significantly to the measurement of the BDD. Next, it's difficult to see in the footage, but I maintained a constant surface area on each electrode by covering excess surfaces with electrical tape, such that slightly less than two square centimetres were exposed in each case. You can see the black tape I used on the nickel anode at 5:35, and you can see it a little bit on the MMO and graphite too. Whilst I'd agree that the comparison is not accurate (it was never meant to be), I'd still argue that the general trend we're seeing is valid. There may be an argument to be had about the influence of geometric surface area vs true surface area, or the effect of contact resistance in the case of the BDD, but the trend here seems to match literature on the comparative kinetics of the OER on these materials.
Kind of. Not for this particular test (too many metals have similar behaviours when performing the oxygen evolution reaction, and the test is sensitive to many other experimental factors). Other very similar tests (voltammetry and open circuit potental, for example) can definitely identify metals though!
Hmm. That's true. I'll keep an eye on similar issues regarding filming screens in the future. Thanks for pointing it out! And yes, boron-doped diamond is actually rather notorious for exhibiting a high degree of contact resistance. It's often somewhat difficult to make a good connection to it.
I like electrochemistry presented this way. It’s intriguing. Looking forward to more. I actually have a BDD electrode, but I’ve only had one occasion to use it, so I’m looking forward to replicating the experiments in your videos. I notice you didn’t use a reference electrode for this, but it looks like your power supply will accept one.
I'm glad you like the presentation style! Thanks! I've got a couple of other videos I'm working on at the moment, but we'll get to using this thing quite soon, hopefully. I've considered using reference electrodes in a few of my latest videos, but I feel like it would just overcomplicate things for a general audience (at least, until I make a video about what they're for and how to use them, haha). We'll get there eventually. The third pin on my power supply is actually (disappointingly) just an earth connection...
@@ScrapScience Great! I’m looking forward to anything you decide to make, but don’t forget about that magical BDD. I know some power supplies have a reference port, but I plug my Ag/AgCl reference electrode into the earth connection. I don’t ground the power supply case when I do that. Seems to work well.
So which aisle of Bunnings did you find this in, Harry? 🤣 Man, that's awesome! I'm so glad you're able to get your hands on it. You wouldn't believe it, but I learnt about BDD only a few days ago. I was reading about a new clean (and green) synthesis of high quality sodium metaperiodate (DOI: 10.1021/acs.oprd.2c00161). (Pricing seems volatile, but something potentially high return?) I hadn't heard much about periodates before, but their potential to replace a lot of hazchems & waste management problems (e.g. as alternative to perchlorates), sounds great. This paper astounded me too: DOI:10.1038/s41467-023-43320-0. I wonder how such tiny quantities are so effective. Makes me think of how some perovskites can generate hundreds of kilovolts and megawatts of power, when a shockwave induces spontaneous polarisation of ferroelectric crystals.
I don't know. I'm not very knowledgeable on EDM I'm afraid. I'd imagine that it would be rather susceptible to burning away at the high temperatures though.
Why use an expensive electrode if you can use electrolysis with a strong electric field? A simple electrode covered with a thin layer of glass is quite suitable; you just need to apply a sufficiently high voltage and electrolysis occurs without the electrode being destroyed.
I highly doubt this works as well as you're suggesting for bulk electrolysis at high currents. I'd be glad to be proven wrong though. Can you point to point me towards a reference?
@@ScrapScience Which link? Carry out a simple experiment - two test tubes with electrodes inside, a saline solution and a high-voltage DC source, at least a high-voltage transformer with a diode multiplier - even an electric shocker will do. The main thing here is to reduce the distance between the test tubes in the solution to increase the current. The experience is inexpensive and simple.
I still don't understand how you're suggesting this would work at all, and I'm not going to build or buy a HV power supply just to test something that I don't believe works. If you don't have any source backing up your claim, I'm just going to believe you're making it up.
Of course. Graphite is almost always a more reasonable electrode to use. This electrode is specifically for performing reactions that graphite can't do though. I list some of them at the end of the video.
What do you mean by resistance? Are you talking about the specific resistance, the contact resistance, or the effective resistance that we see in an electrolytic cell?
I've been wondering about why does carbon get destroyed when used as a anode in most conditions its used there isnt anthying that can react with it yet it falls apart, i search for it but the only result i found says that its because carbon is porous but then the Cathode would fall apart too but it doesnt.
The porosity does come into it, but it's not the main reason behind the degradation. When used as an anode, a very small amount of carbon is able to be oxidised to form CO or CO2. Since these electrodes have a porous structure, this oxidation can happen inside the electrode instead of just on the surface, causing them to disintegrate. Without any oxidation, no disintegration occurs. Likewise, making the electrodes less porous (i.e. HOPG electrodes) leads to much less electrode damage (but not zero).
@@ScrapScience Thanks for the reply, that does make a lot of sense. This means that carbon will fall apart faster when making Oxygen like when used in a NaOH solution then when its making cl2?
Correct. When making chlorine from aqueous solution, carbon will fall apart slower (but it will still eventually disintegrate, since there's still water present that could lead to the formation of oxides).
@@ScrapScience I have seen your chlorate cell videos and you should be careful, because Ir-Ru MMO anode can release RuO4 when your cell has high ph(11-14). Your chlorate cells werent ph controlled and had around ph 11. I am not saying that this always happens, but you should be careful.
It works great for a chlorate cell! MMO electrodes require some degree of care to prevent degradation. For instance, chloride levels should always be high enough, and current density should never be pushed too high. With BDD electrodes here, none of that matters (at least, to a certain extent), as the material is just so highly resistant to degradation. In fact, BDD is so robust that it can even oxidise chloride all the way to perchlorate with no issues if you run the cell for long enough.
You got any HgHgO reference electrode? I think this would make you able to separate cathode from Anode Potentials vs. HgHgO and then put the Anode or cathode into nhe/she scale as Listed everywhere. Also I think there should be circuits available for free that you can build your own potentiostate with.... really no prob for 50 mA I would have thought. Depending on how far you want to go....
I'll be getting a reference electrode at some point. I avoided performing proper voltammetry in this video because I wanted to keep things relatively simple for now. Rest assured, there are plans to build a potentiostat and perform some proper electroanalytical techniques in the future :)
Do you have the B&F book? I think it had some circuits there. I mean because you're a maker most probably and could build such stuff easily by yourself... and there is tons of other channels that could help you with that
Would this electrode be suitable for a Zinc Bromide battery? I've read that Zinc Bromide batteries need to be charged below the threshold of water splitting. So, with this electrode, could you apply more amps without splitting water?
Not really, as far as I'm aware. If you use this thing as the negative electrode, you're going to be depositing zinc metal on it anyway during the charging process, and the threshold for water reduction will quickly adjust to that of zinc. If you use it as the positive electrode, it's not really necessary since water oxidation is so much more difficult to perform than bromide oxidation, regardless of the electrode material. Additionally, even if you could widen the electrochemical window of your solution easily, using larger potentials to charge the battery would just lead to less efficient battery charging, which I imagine is not ideal.
You got scammed I think. I got my similar electrode for only about double the price of platinum from eBay. You gave no dimensions but I think you had rather large hands and I assume that is 15x15mm like mine. (10x10 would have been cheaper).
