Greetings fellow nerds.
You've seen me use platinum electrodes in a lot of my videos.
They're the go-to electrode for most chemistry being inert and capable with many chemicals and providing low overpotentials in a variety of experiments.
They're actually not that hard to get from amazon and ebay, in the price range of 20 to 50 dollars.
The problem is sometimes you'll come across fake ones as i've shown in a previous video.
It is thus helpful to make your own of known authenticity.
Now this electrode was coated with platinum by an electrolytic process.
Electrodeposition of platinum on titanium is a complicated process requiring a lot of preparation of the titanium, special platinum salts and electroplating conditions.
I'm not going to do that.
I'm just going to attach platinum on titanium directly.
First we're going to need some titanium rods or strips.
We're using titanium as a conductor to save on the expensive platinum.
Titanium is inert to most chemicals except concentrated acids so it usually won't interfere with our chemistry.
We're also going to need some titanium bolts as well as matching titanium nuts.
Screw them together.
Now align them to the titanium strips in parallel and place the titanium nuts and bolts between the strips.
The idea is that we're going to clamp down on our platinum and the strips at the same time.
Okay, when you're ready, insert some platinum.
I'm going to use this one ounce platinum coin i purchased with my soul, some ad space, and some bitcoins.
because it turns out my soul by itself wasn't worth very much.
You can use platinum bars if you want, the chemistry will still be the same.
Now just simply tighten the bolts and clamp the platinum and titanium together.
Now a much better option would be simply to drill holes in the titanium strips and thread the bolts through that way.
I strongly recommend going that route if you can.
I myself didn't have the necessary tools to drill titanium.
And there is our platinum electrode.
Now to test it.
I've got a solution of salt, a fairly simple test for an electrode,
and i've wired up the platinum electrode to the positive terminal of my power supply to make it an anode.
The diagonal strip you see in frame is wired up to the negative terminal and is thus the cathode.
Now we apply five volts.
And there we go.
Looks like it's working.
The titanium holding the platinum is not reacting as it passivates when used as an anode.
All the current is going through the platinum as evidenced by the bubbling.
Even after several hours of electrolysis the electrode still seems fine.
Most other electrodes show signs of wear by now.
So there you have it, an easy to build homemade platinum electrode.
Total is just around a thousand dollars or so at the current exchange rate for platinum on this day, April 1st.
Thanks for watching.
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If you are not currently a patron, but like to support the continued production of science videos like this one, then check out my patreon page here or in the video description.
I really appreciate any and all support.