> Re: CS>Silver Generation with ULVDC > From: David Bearrow > Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 07:51:12
> I was taught in college (way back so its become confused) that > electrons flow from negative to positive. Which knowing that I > would have guessed that the silver would plate onto anode off of > the cathode. Can anyone explain their theory why this is not so? Hi David, You are correct, electrons flow from negative to positive. But this is only in conductors, like metals. The atoms are considered stationary, and the electrons dance about at high velocity that depends on the metal. (search for "Fermi Velocity".) With an applied field, the electron dance moves in the direction of the positive terminal. The actual drift velocity is very slow, but the electromagnetic effects travel at close to the speed of light. In liquids, current flow is by the physical movement of ions. The velocity depends on the size of the ion and the viscosity of the surrounding liquid. It is very slow, on the order of microinches per second. I am still studying the archives, but there have been long discussions on this in the past. As I understand it, the electrolysis of silver consists of a silver atom giving up an electron at the positive terminal and entering the solution as a positive ion. To keep the system balanced, a hydrogen ion at the cathode accepts an electron. Two of them join and form a hydrogen molecule that bubbles off. I suspect the picture is much more complicated than this, since "Ole Bob" mentions silver plates on a copper cathode, and we can observe silver oxide forming at the cathode and streaming away in a mist. Anyway, free electrons do not survive for long in water. When we first apply current to the liquid, we have only positive and negative ions streaming in opposite directions. After the impurities are removed, there should only be positive silver ions entering the solution from the anode. What happens to them after that is the Art of Colloidal Silver! Best Regards, Mike Monett -- 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]>
