a nickel is a penny
Well,
The results of the first splash attempt are too strange.
I guess I learned that a nickel has a lot of copper.
I put 2 nickels onto 2 leads and made a saturated sol of sodium tetraborate decahydrate aka borax laundry booster.
I used a dead 9v that gave 8.45v.
I got loads of bubbles, but within 30 seconds the nickel at the positive lead was covered with green under the bubbles.
Is it copper oxide?
It was a 'new' nickel and I thought it must be a non nickel formula, so I found an older one, and got the same results.
I guess I need to buy nickel electrodes grr.
I do not see where any copper came from other than the nickel itself. There was no copper in the borax so it must be the metal.
The alligator clips were above the water level.
So, I cannot say.
but I do want to say that although the metal was green the bubbles and green dropped off the coin which made me think this dropping and starting over activity of the electrolyte might be easier to achieve than I thought.
BTW. It was a simple saturated solution which means there was salt at the bottom that was still undissolved.
jeanna
EDIT
Well, it seems I might have made Ni dihydroxide. ( HO - Ni - OH )
This is brighter than what I saw, but it is green.
It is used in batteries and ultra caps and made by hydrolysis of ammonia among other things.
The sheets indicate that it is pretty toxic, so, I guess I will put all this away.
j
Well,
The results of the first splash attempt are too strange.
I guess I learned that a nickel has a lot of copper.
I put 2 nickels onto 2 leads and made a saturated sol of sodium tetraborate decahydrate aka borax laundry booster.
I used a dead 9v that gave 8.45v.
I got loads of bubbles, but within 30 seconds the nickel at the positive lead was covered with green under the bubbles.
Is it copper oxide?
It was a 'new' nickel and I thought it must be a non nickel formula, so I found an older one, and got the same results.
I guess I need to buy nickel electrodes grr.
I do not see where any copper came from other than the nickel itself. There was no copper in the borax so it must be the metal.
The alligator clips were above the water level.
So, I cannot say.
but I do want to say that although the metal was green the bubbles and green dropped off the coin which made me think this dropping and starting over activity of the electrolyte might be easier to achieve than I thought.
BTW. It was a simple saturated solution which means there was salt at the bottom that was still undissolved.
jeanna
EDIT
Well, it seems I might have made Ni dihydroxide. ( HO - Ni - OH )
This is brighter than what I saw, but it is green.
It is used in batteries and ultra caps and made by hydrolysis of ammonia among other things.
The sheets indicate that it is pretty toxic, so, I guess I will put all this away.
j