[Sci4life (OP)]

Hi I'm new to this forum and after googling my questions and not getting an answer i stumbled apon this forum and there are lots of knowledgeable people here  [^]

Ive been trying to make sodium chlorate (NaClO3) from sodium chloride (NaCl) by electrolysing it. Apparently, NaCl + 3H2O + 6e → NaClO3 + 3H2 and this equation seems to make sense to me and i think its possible, but after my experiments to dont get anything near it i think  [V]

You see, ive tried electrolysis in a glass jar and with Stainless steel electrodes and i got a yellow liquid which turned into a black sludge after going through colours like green and blue - yes very wierd, so then i changed to a plastic container and the situation improved but still was discoloured and then i narrowed it down to my SS electrodes.

So now ive replaced them with carbon/graphite rods and i electrolysied my salt solution for the night of an AC adapter with a DC 2.4 volt 2 amp output. This isnt very much power BUT the solution i made was "smallish" 4 teapons of salt (approx) into 300 ml of water (approx).

Morning came and i filtered the solution to remove graphite that was dissolved from my electrodes. This time i had none of the green/blue/black crap in my cell so i was hopefull. Next after boiling it became a white sludge in the pan and furthur heating turned it brown (i think i burned it?)i wasnt botherd to heat is slowly in an overn or any of that  []

so now to check if it was even remotley an oxidiser (NaClO3 or NaClO4 - both of which are possible outcomes from this electrolysis, just leave it longer to make a perchlorate)i mixed it with sugar and no result once ignited, next was Al dust and still no result and finally both and yup u guessed it - bupkis []

So my questions are...

Could heating too much during evapouration (ie turn compund brown) "damage" it?

Could the salt solution electrolysis result in making bleach (NaOCl - sodium hypochlirde)?

Would putting more power - 12 volts 8 amps do anyharm? or just make the electrolysis faster?

Would anyone have any suggestions on how to improve this experiment?

Sorry for asking so many questions but ive become really stuck and would appreciate any help i can get  []

thanks if you made it this far []

PS - im asking if it made bleach becuase once filtered i spilled some and had to wash my hands and it felt kind of slippry as if were NaOH (Soidum Hydroxide) but it smelt Exactly like bleach and was good at cleaning up some stains in my Pot  [:-'(]

[Sci4life (OP)]

Would using a battery work better than a dc plug pack because a dc plug pack offers a "near" dc output (there is still ripple from the ac conversion) while a DC battery offers Pure DC (if it were hooked up to an Oscilliscope it would have a striaght line across the screen)?

[Sci4life (OP)]

updates:

i tried again with a SLA batter 12 volts 18 amp hours... After knowing how much NaCl i put in and the resistance of the cell and the curretn it drew i worked out the time to electrolise was 6 hours so i left it for 15 mins due to the cable almost smoking form the high current (my cell drew 20 amps)i had t ostop, so i boiled it off and it left me with that same brown stuff as all the other times, but this time i left it for longer so it turned from brown to white (didnt do this before) and mixed sugar and it sustained a burn despite being impure (only 15 mins electrolysis instead of the 6 hours i needed) so i plan to retry it with thicker cables and on a larger scale...

but i dont understand how a clear liquid can turn brown (moist powder) after boiling then into a white powder after further heating?

[mehdi1989]

Sci4Life i also want to do this and maybe i can help you. we should talk on msn, ok?

[Bored chemist]

Sci4Life i also want to do this and maybe i can help you. we should talk on msn, ok?

Did you see the date of their last post?

[Geezer]

Mehedi,

We don't encourage the manufacture of dangerous materials at home. I think it's best that we lock this thread.