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Course: Exploratorium > Unit 3
Lesson 4: Indicating ElectrolysisExperiment tips
Here are a few tips from Julie to help you conduct your Indicating Electrolysis experiment.
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- At0:45, she says that magnesium sulfate is safe to use. Wouldn't the reaction produce magnesium hydroxide? Isn't that also caustic?(3 votes)
- Would using NaCl also cause NaOH to form which is a strong base and will corrode your electrolytic cell?(2 votes)
- Yes, doing electrolysis of water with NaCl would result in NaOH forming as a solution. In industry, NaCl is dissolved in water and electrolysed to produce chlorine gas and NaOH is another product of the same reaction.(2 votes)
- Why is it necessary to add salt to the water? The battery breaks up the water, but doesn't interact with the salt, right? Could you leave out the salt or change it to another solution (for example sugar+water)?(2 votes)
- Pure water doesn't conduct electricity, so you have to add a solution to conduct the electricity. In this case, it is Epsom salts. But I don't know if the experiment still works if you use sugar instead of salt. I hope this helps.(0 votes)