Hi Steve, This is the second time I tried to send this. First one went to limbo.
I'll tell you what we do and you can try it. There may be others that will disagree. We set our current regulator to limit at 1 milliamp. We start with 40 volts and reduce it accordingly to maintain that 1 ma. We recommend using 2 3/4 inch spacing (the opening of a standard mouth pint jar) and one pint of steam distilled water without any additives such as you indicate. Soda or salt is NOT needed. There is enough conductivity to get the process started without using either. However, you may want to add about 10% of some previously made CS to your new batch to start it off more quickly. We use 1/4": wide electrodes because it gives about 2.5 times lower current density for the surface area than the typical #14 gauge wire. We feel this and the constant current helps in producing smaller particles. Our CS is always clear when made under 15 PPM. Without current control your process will run away with increasing current. Granted, this is a slow process but so is winemaking. One gets the best product when it is allowed to take its own sweet time without one forcing the current to higher and higher flow rates with constant voltage. Hope this helps you. Trem www.silvergen.com Constant Current Colloid Generators ----- Original Message ----- From: Steve Young To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, May 19, 2000 11:05 PM Subject: CS>What is best constant current? Hi list, I am new to this list, but have designed and experimented with many CS generators over the last few years (I am an EE). But I need some help with the electro-chemistry aspects. For a DC generator, I have seen conflicting recommendations on the best constant current to use. For example, one recommends 20 ma., and another says use less than 1 ma. Some say particle size is smaller when less current and more time is used for a given PPM. What is the list wisdom on the value of constant current to use? I have made both low voltage DC generators (which requires a bit of baking soda for proper conductivity) and high voltage DC generators (which don't need any additive to the steam distilled water). Is the optimum current the same for both low and high voltage constant current generators? Thanks, Steve Young
