July 2015
Intermediate to advanced
1140 pages
35h 55m
English
A well-known way of splitting water (H2O) is by electrolysis [151]. A container (trough) contains distilled water and two electrodes -- the anode (A) and cathode (C) consisting of either platinum or nickel -- connected to a DC current source. Pure H2O is a poor conductor; the addition of H2SO4 to the water makes the solution conducting. Although the solution of H2O and H2SO4 heats up - due to the losses caused by the current flowing from anode to cathode- at the anode oxygen O2 and at the cathode hydrogen H2 is accumulated. The efficiency of splitting H2O based on electrolysis is about ηelectrolysis = 80%, that is, 20% of the energy is converted to heat within the electrolysis process. The energy density ...
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