Effect of Varying Metals on Electrolysis of Sea Water
The purpose of this experiment is to test different metals (aluminum, steel, and copper) on the production rate of hydrogen and oxygen gas through electrolysis. This gas would then be purposed as a buoyant force in the ocean, so it will be able to lift ship wrecks. The hypothesis was that aluminum would produce the greatest amount of gas. This experiment was conducted with an electrolytic cell where the same metal acted as both the anode and cathode and each cell has the same dimensions. That cell was placed in an airtight container full of 0.6 M salt water. The cell then received electricity through metal bolts connected to a direct current power source thus producing gas through a tube; the tube ran into an inverted graduated cylinder filled with water and the displacement of water was the gas measured in milliliters using the Logger Pro Software. A stopwatch was used to record the time it took to produce gas which was measured in seconds but converted to minutes to get the rate. The volume of gas was then divided by the time to yield the rate of gas production. An ANOVA test was conducted to see if the metals would all produced the same average amount of gas. The results showed that none of the metals produced the same average rate of gas production. A descriptive analysis and percent error were also conducted. This was conducted to see which metal produced the highest rate of gas. Both tests revealed that steel had the greatest rate of gas produced out of all the metals. Steels percent error was the lowest which means it preformed the best out of all the metals and in the descriptive analysis the upper 50% of gas production of steel was greater than all the metals data. In conclusion the hypothesis was reject since steel had produced the highest rate of gas production and had the lowest percent error, so it was also the most efficient metal producing hydrogen and oxygen gas.
Research Conducted By:
Caleb Yacks
Warren Mott High School
Ryan Accad
Warren Mott High School
Warren Consolidated Schools