Products of Concentrated Barium Chloride Electrolysis?

[Miles123K]

TL;DR

Are there any products from the electrolysis that would have turned the electrolyte black?

I did an electrolysis experiment with 1.6M Barium Chloride solution and the electrolyte turned black after the electrolysis. I am fairly positive that Chlorine was produced at the anode from the smell. However, Ba(OH)2 is colorless. I used graphite electrodes for this experiment. Does anyone have any idea about what could have happened along the way?

 

[TeethWhitener]

Graphite can exfoliate under moderate to high voltages. You probably have a suspension of graphite in water.

 

[Miles123K]

Graphite can exfoliate under moderate to high voltages. You probably have a suspension of graphite in water.

That makes a lot of sense! However, I also did the same procedure with other electrolytes. Also Chlorides. And those electrolytes didn't show the same thing. Does the presence of barium make the exfoliation easier or something? Thanks for your answer!

 

[TeethWhitener]

I dunno, maybe. One simple test would be to use electrodes not made of graphite to see if you still get a black product with the barium electrolyte.

it also wouldn’t hurt to take a look at the graphite electrodes after the reaction: are they expanded? Degraded looking?

 

[Miles123K]

I dunno, maybe. One simple test would be to use electrodes not made of graphite to see if you still get a black product with the barium electrolyte.

it also wouldn’t hurt to take a look at the graphite electrodes after the reaction: are they expanded? Degraded looking?

Right. The electrodes didn't look any different but I will attempt another trial to check if it's actually graphite exfoliation.