[NewCandle] Stretching (and hiding) nanosquiddies

[Nick Reiter]

Hi Keith,

Rusty wheels slowly turn, and squeak, but yes, very good, I am seeing the analogy.  Hm.  I suppose that there could be some odd current paths then, if one considers that the aluminum foil rolls, in their native state, have hidden surfaces aplenty, where the ingress of electrolyte / salt water is limited in rate.

Well, by all means, jazz that foil with a battery I shall.

n


> Nick writes:
> >What constitutes the cathode and anode in a purely
> chemical system?
> 
> Perhaps there is a term to better describe this; how about
> canode?
> In this system the aluminum acts like a cathode at the
> points
> of silver deposition and an anode at the points of
> dissolution.
> Subsequently there is a real current of electrons flowing
> between those two
> points on
> the aluminum. One could apply a potential externally using
> two
> aluminum electrodes rather than generating it internally
> with one, and
> achieve the same result. It's not _quite_ the same
> thing,
> but for most purposes can be considered so. The main
> difference
> being that all the factors you mention come into play so
> the
> actual total corrosion current varies over time and temp.
> This is the nut of your problem with the scaling. Not
> enough
> aluminum surface area for the weight of the material.
> 
> As it is pretty easy to do, why not stick two small hunks
> of aluminum in
> your KI
> solution and juice it with enough current to see the
> discoloration
> of the solution, etc. Then perhaps it will be clearer what
> I
> am ham handedly driving at. It might help to look at the
> pic
> I just posted and consider that the tubes are identical
> except
> for the physical surface area of the three canodes. What a
> difference
> in the reaction rate! You've gone down by a factor of
> what, one thousand
> times?
> 
> K.
> 
> 
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