I have published several videos on youtube about HOCl production, the older one, the newer one, and the italian one, even older and uglier. Yet another might be in the works, as the vat model I’m currently using is different from the one in the latest video, and I plan to build another improved version of that.
Anyway, I’m creating this post because one user on youtube made several very interesting questions that deserve to be answered here as well.
I am really confused after many days of research of this topic. I have really doubt if it is possible to get HoCl by simple electolysis of NaCl, but on the other hand does the USA companies lies about theyre commercial products? Or it is really so important to keep very specific conditions (size of electrodes, voltage, amperage, etc.) I have made many of attempts with concentration of salt vinegar, duration of electrolysis. I haven’t got enough big electrodes (now ordered from aliexpress similar as yours) and I haven’t got ppm tester so I can’t evalueate the final product. When I used a small amount of salt and vinegar and let electrolysis almost 2 hour (because of weak power supply, small electrodes 1 lite of solution) it doesn’t smell so intensive by chlorine like before when I used much salt. But if I tried to immerse cloth to this solution it bleaches it a little. So I am not sure if it should be HoCl or not. HoCl should smell so strong like NaOCl or not? It is the right technique to rise the time of electrolysis when you have small electrodes? What happens to solution if you let it run too long?
To which I replied:
you pose good questions. I am not the guy for you as I can only answer by experience, not by knowledge. My solution has not showed to bleach tissues, given I have never submerged a cloth inside it, but I spray many dressed people all day long when they access a certain area, been doing it for a year, and noone complained yet. The best way I can describe the smell of my solution after it’s been for a few hours inside the reservoir of the pressure painter I use to spray it, is “swimming pool changing room”, if you know what I mean. The concentration of HOCl in the final solution is a result of: pH of the solution (optimal is 5 if I remember correctly, yet 6 is pretty much the same), amount of electrical current (which itself is proportional to voltage, electrodes area, electrodes distance, and amount of electrolytes in the solution, that is, salt), and amount of salt (so how much salt you place in there will speed up the reaction twice, but will also leave a larger salt residue when the solution dries up). By the way, regarding the evidence that this method really works, there’s plenty of papers where it’s detailed that electrolysis is the simplest way to obtain HOCl, albeit not the most efficient. Running the electrolysis for too long will warm up the solution because of Joule effect (possibly degrading the HOCl which is in itself unstable), and increase the amount of corrosion the anode will go through.