HexJam - 28-4-2011 at 02:33
(Not sure if this should be in material acquisitions or here)
The plan...
Purchase some palladium foil from an art supply store and wrap it around a titanium camping peg to make an electrode...
Price:
~£17 for 5 sheets of Pd
~£3 for the Ti peg
Total ~£20; rather cheap from what I've seen around the net... or am I looking in the wrong places?
Any one see any flaws in this plan?
bbartlog - 28-4-2011 at 04:07
Without knowing a damn thing about the technical aspect, I assume that your plan will not work. It's one of those case where someone seems to think
that all those experts who are doing things in a complicated way must actually be morons, and hey, how about this really simple way? Two obvious
problems are that first, the contact between foil and peg will be only at a few points, so current flow will be uneven; and second, as soon as a
pinhole in the foil develops, the space between peg and foil will fill with electrolyte. But I'm probably understating the problem.
HexJam - 28-4-2011 at 04:52
How about just rolling the foil into a loose tube and using that by itself?
I only mentioned this because I did a quick search for palladium foil and got no results and just wanted to be sure you guys were aware that you can
buy palladium foil quite cheap. =-)
unionised - 28-4-2011 at 05:04
Where can you buy palladium foil cheaply?
The places I have seen are selling it at something like£300 per square inch.
Places like this
http://www.advent-rm.com/catalogue/items.aspx?criteria=line&...
Hades_Foundation - 28-4-2011 at 05:17
Thinnest Pd foil I find is 0.0125 mm, a 10X10 cm sheet would weigh 1.5 g and cost 22 £ at market price. Can't imagine art stores selling it at a
loss, so it's either very thin or not (pure) Pd?
Woops, already found thinner, 0.0015 mm.
And if foil is the same as gold foil you could be looking at 0.0002 to 0.0004 mm...
Don't know if that's usable...
[Edited on 28-4-2011 by Hades_Foundation]
HexJam - 28-4-2011 at 05:20
80mm x 80mm :
http://www.artsupplies.co.uk/item-palladium-metal-leaf.htm
I doubt its anywhere near as thick as the stuff in your link, although you do get 5 leaves of the stuff.
unionised - 28-4-2011 at 06:23
Well, you learn something new every day.
As far as I understand it, there's nothing magical about the titanium under the Pd so a roiled up tube of Pd leaf should do as long as it's strong
enough.
Also,for the use I have in mind (diffusion of H2) the thinner the better.
HexJam - 28-4-2011 at 06:30
I thought I'd take the plunge and purchase one of their booklets of the stuff anyway, it's only £20. I'll let you's know the results when it arrives
=-)