Black electrodes

[Ioku]

So first some if about my cell it’s a series cell with 4 sets of 3 plates that are sealed of from each other the plate configuration is - + -. Its running under 30 amps, don’t know exactly just that its under 30, and 13.5 volts between the 4 sealed cells so about 3.4 volts to each cell. I haven’t had it over heat even with out pmw and It makes about 1.75 LPM. And for electrolyte I have been using only distilled water and KOH. But after having run it in my car for about 170 miles all the electros have turned black, I know they sort of change color during conditioning but is black ok. Here’s a pic of what they look like any help on this would be great.

Edit By Looking In, There are still some people on dial up. If you could post a link to the images it would be great.

[DrLucky]

sorry, I can't help about the electrodes turning black, cause I dont know. Does it leave a residue in the water?

But my main question is how are you powering this 30 amp device in your car? Is you car running off of just hydrogen? Or is it a gasoline/hydrogen hybrid? If so, what kind of mpg rate are you getting from it?

Sorry if you have answered the questions on different threads already.....

thanks
Kris

[glenn_aircooled]

Is that centre bolt a bit " whitish " ?
If you are getting any impurities into your cell - you will get
deposits on the electrodes.
Also you are running at 4.3 v with fairly high current
so you will be overloading the Surface area [ efficiency wise ]
this may also lead to different colouring of electrodes.
The purity of the KOH also comes into play.
I see from the pic that it is a Dark brown. The brown is a coating from
the KOH , and is part of the conditioning - that is good.
The darkness is probably from some extra contaminents.
Glenn

[chemelec]

[FlashBang]

Its kind of hard to tell without knowing what the bolts inside the cups are... but the bottom left corner cup gives the most complete picture of both bolts. From observation, it appears to be brass. If the bolts are not stainless steel, then it could be a metal prone to discoloration with oxidation.

FlashBang!

[Ioku]

Well the bolts should be stainless all the metal in in the cell is stainless, at lest I think it is, the bolts and nuts came from home depot and the cups came from walmart and are supposed to be stainless, but then I'm not sure what grade or quality. It did turn the water brown to and I washed off some of the brown residue on the cups and it looked black underneath.

And no this isn't running my car alone its just boosting it and it still uses gas I built a voltage adder to lean out the O2 sensor and I do seem to be getting better mileage but I still on my first tank with it and haven't filled up yet to see how much gains I'm getting.

And for the KOH I got it from Biodiesel barn not sure if thats a good place or not to get it.

[Looking In]

Ioku, I may be wrong but I think those cups are stainless steel plated. I have seen similar reactions and color with aluminum. I can also recall the smack booster the outer plates turned black over driving his cells. I'm glad to see some of your work. Good job.