Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello, I am a student wanting to do the Water to fuel to water experiment. I do not have access to the chemicals specified for this project, including Cobalt nitrate hexhydrate. Could I bypass applying the Cobalt nitrate hexhydrate catalyst to an electrode and use cobalt as an electrode instead? Thanks in advance

Hi Liad,

I'm assuming that you're working on the project described here:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ll#summary

I think the cobalt needs to be dissolved in the phosphate buffer to form the catalyst on the electrode surface. So you really need to use the cobalt nitrate specified in the project procedure.

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.

A. Norman

Norman40, thank you for the reply. I all have a couple more questions. The cobalt nitrate seems to be very hard to access, what alternate chemical would you suggest. Also, the chemical for the Phosphate buffer solution are inascceable. Would using sodium sulfate(NA2SO4)work as a buffer?

Hi Liad,

I don't recommend substituting any of the chemicals specified in the project procedure. Phosphate is involved in formation of the catalyst so you can't use a sulfate salt in the buffer solution.

Cobalt nitrate, mono potassium phosphate and dibasic sodium phosphate are available from Amazon at the following links:

https://www.amazon.com/Cobalt-Nitrate-h ... =8-2-fkmr0

https://www.amazon.com/Potassium-Phosph ... 97&sr=8-26

https://www.amazon.com/Phosphate-dibasi ... 608&sr=8-8

Alternatively these chemicals can be purchased from Carolina.com:

https://www.carolina.com/specialty-chem ... /854990.pr

https://www.carolina.com/specialty-chem ... +phosphate

https://www.carolina.com/specialty-chem ... te+dibasic

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.

A. Norman

Thank you A. Norman, those links were extremely helpful. Some of the other people who completed this experiment considered other mettalic salt catalysts. What would these be?

Thank you, Liad

Hi Liad,

The “Make It Your Own” section of the project suggests trying nickel, iron or manganese as catalysts other than cobalt. If you try one or more of these you might use the nitrate salt to be consistent with the cobalt nitrate used in the project procedure.

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.

A. Norman