ALUMINIUM AND CAUSTIC SODA(LYE) TO PRODUCE HYDROGEN???????

[paulo]

Hi everyone!!
I have been reading some topics of this forum and i haven't found (yet) a topic that "speeks" about this!!!
Apparently mixing water, caustic soda and aluminium produces a chemical reaction and releases a kind of gas!!!
I have done the experiment and i noted that is true!!!
Now my question is: is it really hydrogen or some other type of gas??
And if it is, how can i store it??
Does anyone have any knowledge in this area so we all can discuss about this??

note:be careful working with caustic soda and water! it is very corrosive!!!


ps: sorry my english writing!!!

[Brett]

Is this the test we all used to do in high school

im afraid it was a while ago for me so i couldnt tell u the gasses produced, but i would hazard a guess that it isnt only hydrogen..

One way to store pure hydrogen is using metal hydride storage a google search should bring up some info

[googolp]

This reaction creates only one gas, H2. The only problem is the NaOH vapour it often produces, not a very happy vapour. Here are the equations.

2 Al + 6 H2O ---> 2 Al(OH)3 + 3 H2

Al(OH)3 + NaOH ---> Na+ + [Al(OH)4]-

The sodium hydroxide can be simply taken out but passing all of the gasses and vapours from the reaction through a water scubber. The water only lets the gasses float to the top and out of the scubber. Multiple scubbers are always nice, they also help cool the H2.

Don't quote me, I'm not chemist. This is what I have gathered from various websites that I didn't check the sources of.

[chemelec]

Yes, It Creates Hydrogen.
So Does Sulphuric Acid and Zinc, Hydrochloric Acid and Zinc, Or Nitric Acid and Zinc. Plus Hundreds of Other Chemical Reactions.

Problems:
1) It can be Very Expensive to get any Reasonable Quantities of Hydrogen with these reactions.
2) And Where do you Dispose of all the Used-Up Chemicals?

Gary

[johnh]

[Kevlar]