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I am trying to transfer power wirelessly through inductive coupling to achieve hydrolysis. When using a transmitter coil, DC powered at 9V, I am able to illuminate an LED connected to the receiver coil.

If I snip the LED off and place the exposed ends in water, I am not able to achieve hydrolysis. When checking the exposed leads with a voltmeter, there is transient voltage between the exposed leads, but this quickly vanishes - maybe it is an artifact.

Is there some way to achieve hydrolysis where the receiver is just a coil with no attached components?

transmitter and receiver

JRE
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Barney Cartwright
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    @barneycartwright: Why wireless? Wireless only gets you a couple of inches (a few centimeters.) It also gets you losses and other problems (as you have found.) – JRE Jun 26 '21 at 15:35
  • @JRE. Understood, but I am curious if it can be done wirelessly. Connecting a leads to a battery works great. Bubbles are clearly visible as expected. However, I seem to be failing with wireless attempts. – Barney Cartwright Jun 26 '21 at 15:38
  • I will take a SWAG and say our output is AC, and you need.DC. – Gil Jun 26 '21 at 23:12

1 Answers1

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For efficient electrolysis, you require

DC voltage and current

If AC is provided, the reaction can get undone. Since the two coils act like a transformer, only AC gets transferred from one coil to the other. The LED circuit would have had some component to convert that AC to DC. (Probably the LED itself since it is a diode.). When the LED board was disconnected, the second coil output would have only AC voltage at its output.

Perhaps you can connect a diode between the second coil output to rectify the AC voltage induced. The diode should probably not be dipped in the liquid.

significant current

Electrolysis is proportional to the amount of electrons transferred; i.e. proportional to the current. So, the resistance between the electrodes needs to be low. This can be achieved by

  1. increasing conductivity of the electrolyte (say adding a pinch of salt to the water)
  2. increasing the area of the electrode (flat plates instead of thin wire stubs).
  3. decreasing the distance between the electrodes.
AJN
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