Hi Roger: Thank you for your explanation. Yes, you were right. It was only when the chlorine and fluoride were present (tap water used), that the color got pinkish. When pure distilled water was used, no pink color. From your explanation, I understand what happened and how. Thanks. suzy
> Suzy: It's not completely clear from your description, but I think it was > only when chlorine and perhaps fluoride were present during your CS > PRODUCTION, that you got the pinkish color. I believe that chlorine and > fluoride boost conductivity during CS PROCESSING. The higher the > conductivity, the larger the particles produced. A few weeks back I tried > to > come up with an electrochemical explanation for this phenomenon. For those > who may be interested, I've summarized my explanation below. > > I compared the electrochemical reactions during LVDC CS generation to the > charge buildup that occurs in a zinc/hydrogen battery WITHOUT a salt > bridge. > (No charge buildup occurs when the salt bridge IS present.) Similarly, when > LVDC CS is produced in salt free DW, silver ions are the ONLY source > besides > OH- to carry the charge between electrodes. Since both Ag+ and OH- > concentrations are extremely low (at least initially), a charge build up > occurs, analogous to the zinc/hydrogen battery without a salt bridge. > Associations between silver ions and silver particles create a charge build > up on the CS particles preventing them from coalescing. When a salt is > present, much less of the charge transfer is contributed by silver and > hydroxyl ions, so less ionic silver is produced to charge the silver > particles, resulting in much lower CS stability because there is little > surface charge to prevent these particles from flocculating. Roger > >
