Best cathode for magnesium cell

Tell you what as its my thread lets do it like this..................
Anode= positive terminal I hook to
Cathode= Negative terminal
I dont want to get confused so will use it how I would if I was talking about Diodes etc, personally I dont give a rats if its wrong or not as it dosnt make any difference in what I am doing.

Next question is a bit harder to answer

Electrolyte is normally saline, but is there any reason copper sulphate couldnt be used in this instance? I am aware potassium hydroxide can be used but the life of the cell is pretty limited and not very at all practical for what I want

Little Ghostman said:

Tell you what as its my thread lets do it like this..................
Anode= positive terminal I hook to
Cathode= Negative terminal
I dont want to get confused so will use it how I would if I was talking about Diodes etc, personally I dont give a rats if its wrong or not as it dosnt make any difference in what I am doing.

Next question is a bit harder to answer

Electrolyte is normally saline, but is there any reason copper sulphate couldnt be used in this instance? I am aware potassium hydroxide can be used but the life of the cell is pretty limited and not very at all practical for what I want

Click to expand...

Using your definitions then, you need to change your title. The magnesium in your proposed cell will be the negative electrode, which you now define as the cathode.

Why do you want to use copper sulfate? A good place for you to start is to write the half-cell reactions and look up the known potentials.

John

Externet said:

The carbon fiber you used, is it the plain "fiberglass substitute" cloth style like
----> http://www.sino-composites.com/up_product/big/2012-8-4-1051387464.jpg ?

How did you secure an electrode terminal ? Crimping ? Riveting ? Sandwiching ?

Click to expand...

Yes. I literally just had a alligator clip on it. I would have to find something more permanent than that for a usable application.

Thanks all I found another source of info and copper sulphate works fine for a few days! so all is well
Thanks for the help

As far as I understand,
Inside a generating battery cell, electrons flow from cathode to anode. That is, traveling from the anode = positive terminal of the battery towards the cathode = negative terminal of the battery.
Outside a battery = in an electric circuit, electrons flow from anode to cathode. That is, exiting from the anode = negative terminal of a battery into the cathode = positive terminal of the battery.

In other words:
Electrons inside a generating cell flow towards the oxidation negative anode electrode and out on negative terminal of the cell to (-) circuit cathode, performing work and exiting by the circuit (+) anode back into the reduction positive cathode terminal of the generating cell.

e--> K to A inside cell
e--> A to K outside cell

Messy, uh ?

As long as it works I dont care much what the electrons do