Hi Nick. You write: >Steam or electrodynamic?
Steam. It's like this. Your salt solution is conductive, and low currents will produce the ordinary electrolytic reaction at the cathode. Increasing the voltage will increase the current, forcing the reaction to the rate limiting step and burning up more energy as heat as you go higher. Only so many ions can reach the surface of the cathode to react, and with a tiny cathode you make it that much harder. The cathode and solution heat from all the ions jostling, until the point where the steam sheath forms and the device breaks from the electrolytic regime to the glow discharge regime. Now that's not an entirely stable place to be, depending on the various experimental parameters. Sometimes the system will break into an arc, other times back to electrolysis. I have seen relaxation oscillations in the glow region depending on circuit parameters, salt concentration, electrode condition, etc. I would bring up PAGD but I'm afraid that speaking that word will cause another round of flaming insults and enflamed ego to resound around vortex; a sad situation only to be resolved by the unnamed culprit(s) increasing their own personal salt solutions using a lithium ion (grin). >Another point >to ponder is why the effect only seems to work with >select aqueous solutions Concentration is the key. Very conductive solutions will require massive currents and tiny cathodes to hit the overpotential required to get the reaction to initiate. Use much less salt and your "non-working" solutions will start to work. I had no problem getting ordinary NaCl to work with my pulsed setup. A good way to start it up is to dip the electrode into the solution under full impressed voltage. Rather a bit like some electropolishing and electroplating techniques. Once the process starts you can further dip the electrode and get more reaction, albeit at a lesser overpotential. I could bang on about this ad-naseum, if there is any interest. Thanks Nick for bringing us back to something tangible to talk about. BTW I did this work back in '92 based on readings of Graneau's work on water arc discharge. K. PS: Isn't a researcher named Sam Fail sort of like a racecar driver named Crash Corrigan? Here's hoping Sam has better luck; that story about the fire and Homeland Security was a real downer.
