How to Make Hydrogen at Home

Hydrogen is an element, and cannot be created. Fortunately, you can extract it from water pretty easily. Each molecule of water is made up of two hydrogen atoms and one atom of oxygen. By running a current through water, you can separate the hydrogen and oxygen atoms and collect the hydrogen gas. You can then ignite the hydrogen to produce heat.

Things You'll Need

• Pencil
• Knife
• Scissors
• Pencil sharpener
• Wire
• Tape
• Battery
• Water
• Salt
• Bowl
• Jar
• Cylinder

Instructions

1. Get a graphite pencil and cut the eraser off the end. Then cut the pencil into two roughly equal halves. You can either use scissors or a knife.

2. Sharpen both pencil pieces at both ends to expose the graphite. Alternately, you can slice the pencils lengthwise and pull out the graphite. If you opt for the latter option, make sure you have a spare pencil in case you break the graphite.

3. Cut two 8-inch pieces of insulated copper wire. Cut the insulation away from the last inch of each with a knife.

4. Attach each wire to a pencil. Tape the wire to the exposed graphite at one end of the pencil so that the metal directly touches the graphite. Stick the other end into one of the coils at the terminals of a lantern battery. One pencil should be wired to the negative terminal, the other to the positive.

5. Fill a bowl or jar with water and add a pinch or two of salt. Put the pencils in opposite sides of the jar so that the tip of each pencil away from the wire is under water. Tape them to the sides of the container so they stay in place. Bubbles should start to form on the submerged tip of each pencil.

6. Fill a cylinder with water by dipping it below the surface. With the cylinder completely under water, turn it upside down so that no water spills out. Hold the cylinder directly above the negative terminal so that bubbles drift up into it. Those bubbles are hydrogen gas.

Tips & Warnings

• Try poking a small hole in the end of the cylinder and pushing the negative probe into it. Seal it up with some epoxy. The terminal will automatically collect hydrogen.