Safety in chemistry, but also in terms of functionality?

  • #1
naodorime
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TL;DR Summary
Asking if a 12v 120a is to much overkill
So, I bought a 12v 120a switching power supply, and the problem is that I don't know if a switching power supply is suitable for doing electrolysis, and now, in a moment of lucidity (I can still cancel the purchase) I came here to ask, so what does you guys say? Im not know much about it, sorry if I said something dumb, but this is like a gift from my parents cuz they know I like chemistry, but I dont wanna toooo much, hope you understand that I dont wanna something that will be to overkill
 
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  • #2
Seems high for any hobby scale electrochemistry.
 
  • #3
naodorime said:
12v 120a
Nothing inherently wrong with a switching power supply but.... 120 amps is a lot.

Don't use this for electrolysis without some current-limiting device in place. If you don't know what that means, spend some time understanding how a constant-voltage power supply varies the amperage according to the load.
 
  • #4
Welcome to PF.

naodorime said:
TL;DR Summary: Asking if a 12v 120a is to much overkill

So, I bought a 12v 120a switching power supply, and the problem is that I don't know if a switching power supply is suitable for doing electrolysis, and now, in a moment of lucidity (I can still cancel the purchase) I came here to ask, so what does you guys say? Im not know much about it, sorry if I said something dumb, but this is like a gift from my parents cuz they know I like chemistry, but I dont wanna toooo much, hope you understand that I dont wanna something that will be to overkill
What kind of electrolysis? Do you want to split ##H_2O## into Hydrogen and Oxygen for some reason, or do you want to perform electrolytic deposition of some metal on a surface?

Why do you need almost 1.5kW to do this? Is this some small industrial scale operation? The maximum current draw from the 120Vrms AC Mains is close to a full breaker's worth of current. Do you have a spare breaker in your breaker box that you can dedicate to this?
 

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