[DIYbio] DIY COPPER(I)CHLORIDE + Electrolysis oxide structure growth Experiment

DIY VIDEO : http://youtu.be/SnndW_seKRM


This video shows what you get when you put copper in a sealed bottle with heavily slated water. Over time a Puffy white power like substance will collect at the bottom. From what I can tell it is Copper I Chloride, and it passes the few simple tests.

Evaporating yielded a white power, the white powder did not dissolve in water, nor react to extreme heat, so it passed my "primitive alchemist methodology" aka my "goto DIY tests".. Air, Water Fire hehe.. next... Earth.. no.. no earth, no clue what that would be lol.. perhaps high pressures or impact?... next Electricity :D

I also do an electrolysis experiment with it. My hope for this experiment was that the copper(I) chloride would react and turn into copper(II)chloride, which does dissolve in water. I was further hoping the dissolved copper would migrate to the contact and electroplate it. This does not seem to have happened :( But the experiment does show some promise in a slightly revised approach :)

I did however manage to "grow copper oxide", moreover I grew an interesting "puffy structure" of copper oxide. At the extremities, where it was growing, it was red, but this quickly(in most places) faded to black.

It appears that the growth process was 2 staged,

first the copper(I)chloride turned into copper(I)oxide, Then the copper(I)oxide further oxidized into copper(II)oxide.

Now, I can't tell yet, but perhaps the "puffy dark mass" is connected enough to the copper wire that the mass itself could serve as an anode or cathode. Copper(II)oxide has been used as a cathode in batteries, so maybe there is hope.

Maybe there is a way to take my "water tech" with it corroding anodes and cathodes, and flush it with DIY copper(I)chloride mixture, and a "worn out system" can "regenerate its metal contacts" :) I'm sure there are plenty of ways to do this, I'm just looking for the simplest DIY method, keep in mind that the end goal is a DIY Water Computer.

Perhaps with a denser concentration of chopper(I)chloride, and with several intricate anodes/cathodes, maybe the copper oxide can be "grown into shape" and be dense enough to be "solid after dehydration".. hmm... electrical oxide sculpture growth ? :)