Ward's® Chemistry Hydrogen Fuel Cell Demonstration

Show How Energy is Produced.

Your students will be amazed at how easily energy can be produced by combining hydrogen and oxygen to form water. In this demonstration, platinum serves as the catalyst, and electrodes will be prepared by coating metal mesh with the platinum. The hydrogen and oxygen come from electrolysis. After the cell is set up, a brief current is applied with a nine-volt battery, causing the formation of hydrogen gas bubbles on one electrode, and oxygen gas bubbles on the other. Using a voltmeter, electricity produced by the recombining of hydrogen and oxygen, facilitated by the platinum metal catalyst, can be observed.