Andy, Things change a bit when looking at electrolysis or galvanic reactions. The definition of anode and cathode, the anode is where an oxidation reaction occurs (the species loses electrons) and the cathode is where reduction occurs (the species gains electrons). As electrons cannot travel through water they must traverse from the anode to the cathode via connecting wires. The gold anode is held at a positive potential which sucks electrons from it, oxidising it to positive gold ions, which then travel to the negatively charged cathode where they will eventually plate out, regaining the electrons that they lost.
Regards Ivan -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, 22 November 2002 7:43 p.m. To: [email protected] Subject: CS>RE: Colloidal Gold Hi Trem, Regarding your below response, gold doesn't tarnish, rust or oxidize very well. That's why it's okay after it has been lost at sea and recovered. I think it will eventually disintegrate through electrolysis though. Try gold plating something like a car bumper. Also, I think you might have your polarity back assward. The cathode is the emitter and the anode is the collector. Remember vacuum tubes? The electrons fly off of the negative charged cathode towards the positive charged anode. Hope this helps, Andy Trem -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. Instructions for unsubscribing may be found at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
