Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Dear Science Buddies Team,

I'm looking at building a regenerative proton exchange membrane fuel cell for my science project this year. I wanted to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases with electricity and channel the gases to the anode and cathode, respectively, with silicone tubing. The electrodes would be airtight plastic containers with platinum catalyst. But although the containers are airtight, there's still air inside; it's not a vacuum. So would the hydrogen gas, instead of splitting into electrons and protons with platinum catalyst, instead form an explosive mixture with air? And would it explode/catch fire of there was no source of ignition?

I thought of adding water to the anode and dissolving the hydrogen in the water, but I don't know if that would hinder the reaction.

Is this a safe project to do, or if not, what can I do to make it safe?

Hello,

Good observation! There is a chance that the hydrogen and air mixture could explode if there was a source of ignition. The only source of ignitions that seem to be present are the electricity used to split the water into hydrogen and oxygen as well as the the electricity produced by the hydrogen and oxygen combining together again. If you were careful enough not to let these ignition sources react with the hydrogen gas, then I think that there would be no problem. However, if you want to be on the safer side, I think you may want to change your science experiment because hydrogen is a very reactive and explosive gas. I think that adding the water to the anode side to dissolve the hydrogen would probably hinder the reaction with hydrogen and oxygen combining together again, so it doesn't seem very helpful.