On 19/10/2022 16:54, KAM1 wrote:
Question for chemistry experts out there:
Say you have two electrically charged plates, covered by an
insulating material, and separated by a narrow gap occupied only by relatively sparse water molecules, i.e. water vapor. Now say you
apply a relatively high voltage to those plates, something on the
order of thousands of volts or more, creating a very strong electric
field between the insulated plates, across the area containing the
water vapor.
It is actually a physics question about electrical permittivity and
dielectric strength. See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dielectric_strength
If the insulators were perfect then the field gradient across them would
be huge and the electric field across the free space tiny.
1. What will happen to the water molecules between the plates? Will
the molecules disassociate into hydrogen and oxygen ions?
The best you might hope for is that they turn around so that the free
electron pairs face the positive plate. See fig 1 here:
https://cds.cern.ch/record/1342701/files/335.pdf
2. If the molecules disassociate into ions, how is energy conserved
in this scenario, since no electrical current would actually flow
between the plates, yet work has been done on the molecules?
To make them ionise you need the plates uninsulated and the gas pressure
low enough that particle mean free path is comparable with the
dimensions of the gap (or voltage above the breakdown for an arc).
3. If the molecules do not disassociate into ions, what prevents the disassociation from occurring?
No current is flowing.
Unless you push the voltage so high that your insulator fails.
The same questions could be asked of hydrogen gas molecules, which
are known to ionize under high voltage electrical fields.
--
Regards,
Martin Brown
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