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Irritation caused by anode in stainless steel cylinder immersed in corrosive water, sodium hypochloride

 

I am using a copper/silver anode charged with 24 volts at 10 amp/20 volts. The anode is inside a stainless steel cylinder immersed in corrosive water, sodium hypochloride. I removed the cylinder from the water and as it dried appeared to give off a toxic gas, not visible, no smell, but causing severe irritation to the eyes. Exposure time about 15 minutes, however the irritation remained some 5-6 hours. The irritation caused extreme eye redness. An observer also experienced the same difficulties. No other leakages or mixture of any surrounding chemicals was detected.

John Haeata

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I think you mean sodium hypochlorite, not hypochloride. But if you consider the gas that you generated to be an unintentional byproduct that you want to stop producing, please tell what it is that you do want to produce from the application of 20 volts to a solution of sodium hypochlorite. Thanks.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
 

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John,

It sounds like you are experiencing the off-gas of OH negative hydroxyls. You mentioned that no odor was present, but that the eyes were quite irritated. To me, that suggests fugitive hydroxide fumes, possibly made more pungent by anionic chloride ions on the electrodes. Have you tried "dipping" the electrodes in deionized water after pulling them from the work cell?

Randall Fowler - Fowler Industrial Plating, LLC
Cleveland, Tennessee, USA