I got email on the from a lurker about this too. Agree. In an electrolytic cell, the cathode is the one connected to the negative terminal of the power supply, and this is the business end for H2.
Jeff On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 2:07 PM, David Roberson <dlrober...@aol.com> wrote: > Interesting, but my nickel on the minus side of the supply is the one > releasing large quantities of tiny gas bubbles. The one attached to the > positive supply terminal was dissolved earlier with table salt but looks > like it will survive with borax. > > I went around and around with this one before I thought I understood > which terminal is connected to which for the device to operate properly. I > think that the positive charge of the H+ group is attracted to the negative > battery terminal. Wikipedia makes this statement as well. So, I believe > the hydrogen is released to the nickel attached to this negative supply > terminal. If you are confident that this is wrong please explain your > understanding as I would be interested. > > Dave > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Jones Beene <jone...@pacbell.net> > To: vortex-l <vortex-l@eskimo.com> > Sent: Fri, Sep 21, 2012 4:44 pm > Subject: RE: [Vo]:Good Alloy for Celani type reaction costs 5 cents : > Chuck Sites > > > *From:* Chuck Sites > > Just to make clear, the nickel was always on the + side of the power > supply, > and is described in Wikipedia as the cathode. > > Hmm … I’m usually the mildly dyslexic one, but someone is confused: the > + or positively charged electrode is the “anode” in an electrolytic cell, > which is what we are talking about - and the “cathode” is negative > (attracts protons and positive ions). > > In a battery, this terminology is reversed, which is probably what they > are referring to. Technically a battery is a galvanic cell, not an > electrolytic cell, since it supplies power. However, to confuse things even > more, when the battery is being charged, instead of supplying charge, it > becomes electrolytic. You could win a bet on that one (or lose it). >
