Mike Monett wrote: > Re: CS>basic dumb question > From: Marshall Dudley > Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 12:22:33 > http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/m77074.html > > [...] > > > Solutions by their very nature are always neutral. If you have an > > Ag+ ion, there has to be a (-) ion to balance it. The two together > > will define the compound. > > [...] > > > A silver ion will tend to attact the OH portion of a water > > molecule, producing silver hydroxide. The remaining H will find a > > matching one, and form H2 which may remain dissolved or be > > outgassed over time. > > Marshall, > > It must be wonderful living in a world where you never have to > balance chemical equations. >
Of course you have to balance equations. But most people don't care to wade through a lot of equations to know what happens. > > The reaction you describe cannot happen. The hydrogen ions would > require two electrons to form hydrogen gas. Electrons do not flow in > water, and are not available. Ions flow in the water, they are the OH- and H+ ions, and they ARE available. Electrons flow in metal, the electrodes are metal. Look up some resources on electrolysis for more information. Why do you think they do not think the equations match? In the electrolytic cell we have the H+ ions moving toward the cathode, and the OH- ions moving toward the anode. At the cathode, the H+ ions receive electrons from the anode and become neutral, combine and produce H2. At the cathode two things can happen. They can lose a electrons producing O2 and H2O, this is standard electrolysis where hydrogen is produced at one electrode and oxygen is produced at the other electrode. Or a silver atom can get stripped off the anode, leaving an electron behind and becoming a silver ion. If that happens then the OH- ion joins with the Ag+ ion at the anode producing silver hydroxide. The equations balance, and ionic silver, ie. silver hydroxide is produced. You cannot produce silver ions without the OH- radical being produced, or the equations will not balance! > > > The hydroxyl ion formed at the cathode is now unbalanced, and the > solution would no longer be neutral as you described in the > preceeding paragraph. > > Please balance your equations. No it is not. It is formed at the cathode, and moves to the anode where it is nutralized, producing either Oxygen gas and water or silver hydroxide. The equations balance perfectly. Take a look at http://www.nmsea.org/Curriculum/7_12/electrolysis/electrolysis.htm to understand how this works. They got it right. Look at the picture about half way down. You will see that the H+ moves to the cathode and is released as H2, and the OH- moves to the anode and is released as O2. That is the way electrolysis works, you can't argue with over 100 years of electrolysis experiments and research. Read the text under the image for a complete explaination. They even provide all the equations as well. Marshall > > > > Mike Monett > > -- > The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. > > Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org > > To post, address your message to: silver-list@eskimo.com > Silver List archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html > > Address Off-Topic messages to: silver-off-topic-l...@eskimo.com > OT Archive: http://escribe.com/health/silverofftopiclist/index.html > > List maintainer: Mike Devour <mdev...@eskimo.com>
