How to Make Hydrogen

Hydrogen is the first element in the periodic table. Some see it as a potentially viable and abundant energy source. You can simply obtain hydrogen by separating the two hydrogen atoms from the one oxygen atom in water by using electrolysis.

Things You'll Need

• Plastic water Bbottle
• Water
• Salt
• Two galvanized nails
• Balloon
• A a twelve volt car battery or twelve volt DC
• Transformer
• Two foot-long wires.

Instructions

Extracting Hydrogen from Water

1. Poke two holes, opposite one another, about 1 inch from the bottom of the water bottle and put the nails in the holes so they are almost touching. Make certain that they do not touch; if they touch, the procedure will not work.

2. Fill the water bottle up to the top of the label and pour in as much salt as it takes to completely saturate the water; this helps give the water more conductivity.

3. Take the two wires and attach one to each nail head and run the other end of the wires to your power supply.

4. Place the balloon over the mouth of the bottle neck and turn on your power supply. If you have followed the procedures correctly, you should begin to see bubbles rising off one of the nails and the other nail should be slowly corroding. This happens because the DC current running through the individual molecules of water forces the hydrogen and oxygen in H20 apart so you are left with two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. The oxygen reacts with the metal, beginning the corrosion, while the hydrogen, being the lightest element on earth, rises to the top to fill the balloon.

5. Prove that the balloon is full with hydrogen by its reaction to fire. Popping the balloon with a lighter will cause an explosion.

Tips & Warnings

• It is important that you are using DC current because electrolysis will not occur unless you use DC.

• Hydrogen is volatile and the resulting explosion will be loud--protect your ears and wear eye protection.