Tag: alternative health

This post is to illustrate the effects of different spacing and sizes of electrodes. You will soon get an understanding of the best spacing for your own chosen electrodes, but you should know the principles. All the following “rules” are actually approximations, but you will be able to fine-tune them yourself. This is probably the most important subject to learn once you have mastered the basics.
If you double the size of your electrode, you should be able to double the current. Note that only the side of the anode which faces the cathode should be used to calculate the area. Kephra found that the best results used about 1 ma per square centimetre with the distilled water kept hot, and using a stirrer if possible.
I only use a stirrer if “cooking” cold. I find that the convection currents are adequate to stir the DW, but if you have a stirrer, laboratory or home-made, then use that. More vigorous stirring is better, the idea being to sweep the silver ions away from the anode as fast as possible.
Maximise the anode size, minimise the cathode area. A piece of copper wire, stainless steel or brass is fine, unless the current is set to alternate polarity at intervals.
1 ma per square centimetre of submerged anode area for the suggested current when processing DW hot.
10 ma per square inch of submerged anode area when processing DW hot.
2 or 3 ma per sq inch of anode area when processing cold.
Moving the electrodes closer together increases the amperage (until the set-point of the constant-current circuit is reached).
For a Silver wire anode, 4 inches submerged depth, we suggest no higher current than 3 ma cold and 6 ma hot-processed. 12 gauge wire is 2 mm in diameter.
Remember that the effective area of an anode is that which is facing the cathode (the reverse side has much less effect) and of course, submerged in the DW. Do not allow suspension devices or parts of the holder to touch the DW unless they are made of the same quality of silver as the anode.
If you seem to need a lot of electrolyte and want to use less, increase the size of the electrodes or move them closer together.
If you need to use more electrolyte to prevent cathode plating, raise more of the cathode out of the water, or increase the electrode spacing.
If you are using a circuit with a constant-current limiter, connect a voltmeter across the electrodes and connect an ammeter in series between the positive connector of the PSU and the anode. Once the water is up to the operating temperature, measure the voltage across the electrodes in air.  Submerge the electrode array. Add electrolyte until the voltage starts to drop to about 90 per cent of the original value. This indicates that the constant-current circuit is now operating to control the voltage in order to maintain the current. Note the current. The operating voltage should be as high as reasonably possible, between 20 and 30 volts (at the beginning of the process) is ideal. If possible, maintain the voltage over 10 volts by moving the electrode spacing.
If each drop of Sodium Carbonate makes too big a change in the measured voltage across the electrode array, then dilute the electrolyte and use more drops of a more dilute product.
If you are getting hydrogen and oxygen bubbles coming off the electrodes in any significant quantity, then either the current is too high or stirring is too slow. Increase the speed of the stirrer or use a miniature water pump.
To increase the electrode voltage, reduce the area of the cathode exposed to the water. You can even raise the cathode out of the water so far that the tip of the cathode wire is just touching the water, but ensure that the evaporation of the DW does not leave the cathode out of the water during your production process.
Professional electro-platers use a “dog-bone anode” where the thin edges of the plate are swollen and rounded off, because the electrical field is concentrated at sharp edges. You can see this effect when running with too little electrolyte, as the oxide accumulates on the edges of the strip of Silver. I am unsure whether this would have any significant effect for our application. I personally ignore this effect.

The first improvement over IS was Heat-reduced CS. This makes use of the fact that Silver Oxide will reduce to metallic Silver nanoparticles in the presence of heat and the absence of oxygen. It can be prepared during the actual production run, or post-production by heating the IS until all or most of the IS turns to CS. It is easy to see the process, because the IS turns a golden-yellow when the ions are reduced to AgNP (Silver nanoparticles).
It was then found that monosaccharide sugars – glucose or fructose – in an alkaline solution (higher than pH 7), would achieve the same result using less energy, thus making a cheaper product. Also, sugar ensures that the reduction process is complete and stays complete. The sugars we use are either a solution of glucose or fructose dissolved in distilled water; or alternatively, one drop of inverted sugar syrup (“Golden Syrup” in the UK, “Karo” in the USA) will do the same thing and is easily purchased from a supermarket.
Heat-reduced CS almost always has a slightly metallic taste, indicating that there is some IS left unreduced. Under some conditions, CS-H can oxidise back to a much paler solution, indicating that the CS-H has returned partially to IS. This can be avoided in almost all cases by heating until no further colour change is seen.
Production of Heat or Sugar-reduced Colloidal Silver (CS-H or CS-S)
The basis of production of true CS (AgNP) is the same as production of IS, but one then reduces the ionic content to AgNP with heat or sugar, either during the production run or post-production in a microwave. (I prefer to heat the DW during the run, but either method works). I have copied-and-pasted some of the paragraphs from the previous post, in case some people wish to print out the “recipe” and have it beside them when making the CS.
If this is your first attempt, use a small quantity of DW the first time (say 250 mls), in order to avoid wastage of DW. If you have a laboratory heating plate with magnetic stirrer, this is ideal. However, these stirrers are astoundingly expensive and I have found a single-ring hotplate is quicker to heat the water and can be bought off eBay quite cheaply.
In the absence of a magnetic stirrer, you can stir the water perfectly adequately using the convection currents in the hot DW. Some people use an air-bubbler to stir the water, but I feel this introduces too much oxygen and atmospheric contaminants and evaporates too much DW. I do not use an air-bubbler for any purpose connected with CS production.
Assemble the electrodes in the usual way, over the chosen reaction vessel. Allow time for the hotplate to get up to temperature. You can shorten the time and energy required by pre-heating the DW in a microwave, if the beaker will fit. The temperature at which I run my production is about 80 – 90 degrees C. You do not need a thermometer; the right temperature for hot-water production is when bubbles form at the bottom of the beaker but do not manage to break the upper surface of the water. You may need to top up the DW during a long production run. Tall, relatively narrow cylinders or cafetieres are much more thermally-efficient than a shallow container.
Once the DW is up to temperature, connect the PSU and ensure that the positive lead is connected to the Silver anode. With the voltmeter and ammeter on-line, start the current. We will use the same electrolyte as before, in order to speed up the process and allow us to calculate the ppm of the final product with much greater accuracy. Add Sodium Carbonate drop-by-drop, allowing time for the convection currents to stir the DW and thoroughly mix the electrolyte, until the voltage reduces to about 90 per cent of the initial value. This indicates that your current has come within the control range of the constant-current circuitry of the PSU.
In most cases, if the anode is a silver wire or narrow strip, the current should be around 2-5 mA. 1 toz Silver bullion bars can run at 15 mA. Large Silver anode plates (say, 150 mm long by 30 mm wide) can easily be pushed to 15 mA and I run my very largest anodes at 40 mA. At this time, note the current (mA) and start your timer.
Using the calculations in the previous post, estimate the time required to produce 20 ppm CS. There is no point in attempting to produce uncapped CS at a higher concentration than 20 ppm. Anything over 10 ppm will work effectively, but a final strength between 15 – 20 ppm is desirable. If you wish to make concentrations higher than 20 ppm for ease of storage or transport, then make capped CS. Run the process until the required ppm is made.
You will be able to watch the DW slowly turn yellow as the Silver is reduced to metallic CS AgNP. The process is complete when the run-time indicates that you have made the required ppm of AgNP. At this stage, the heat in the DW will have reduced the majority of IS to AgNP and produced true CS.
To finish making Heat-reduced CS, stop the current and continue to heat the CS-H until no more colour change takes place. You can do this on the hot-plate or if the beaker is small, transfer it to a microwave.
To make sugar-reduced CS, add a drop of “Karo” or “Golden Syrup”. You can make 1 M glucose or fructose and add a few drops, but “Karo” or other inverted-sugar syrups work well. You can add the sugar syrup at the beginning, after the water is heated, and just before you start the current; alternatively, you can add it at the end, while the CS is cooling. Post-production reduction is considered slightly better, as one is not then electrolysing the sugar, but I have found both techniques work very well.
There is one final alternative, which is very energy-efficient, and that is to make IS cold, then boil in a microwave for CS-H, or add a drop of syrup and boil for CS-S. This works, but heating the product during the production run makes for better stirring and the process runs cleaner.
The result should be totally clear, yellow CS containing no visible particles, and the end-product should look like the finest single-malt Scotch whisky (finest Tennessee sippin’ whisky if you’re in the USA). The final colour has also been likened to Johnson’s baby shampoo, (and like the shampoo, CS does not sting even in the eyes). Tasting the product should give no metallic taste, in fact, it should not really taste of anything.
Any large particles of Oxide floating in the water or left at the bottom of the reaction vessel (it looks like black or grey dust) can be removed by filtering through an aquarium air-stone or the CS can be decanted off. If you filter the product, do not use the same tubing and air-stone for filtering IS, or the IS will immediately be reduced to CS.
Other Notes Concerning Colloidal Silver (AgNP).
Sugar-reduced CS is the universal product. It can be used for any purpose for which CS is applicable. The sugar molecules are small enough that they do not “cap” the AgNP in the same way that cinnamon-reduction provides, so CS-H or CS-S may be more suitable for treating wounds or external abrasions. The use of cinnamon-reduced CS for external use is still the subject of research.
Heat-reduced CS (CS-H) is the only version that I would consider for using upon myself intravenously, until more evidence is available. However, we have had a unique and valuable contribution from a forum member which will be the subject of a later post on this aspect of using CS. The possibility of quickly and effectively curing bacterial meningitis (a fast-acting and lethal bacterium) with an IV drip of CS-H is tantalising and theoretically simple.
Until we have more data from up-to-date research, I cannot recommend the use of any CS product for medical use. I am a biologist and chemist but have no medical qualifications. In these pages, I am giving notes as to what I have done and how I have experimented upon myself and other volunteers, in the hope that others may benefit. Anyone who follows these notes should be aware that they are fellow-researchers into one of the most valuable fields of health research in the post-antibiotic era. The use of AgNP for healing has been known (with much more primitive production methods) since the late nineteenth century. These notes are given for research and information purposes only. You should always consult a qualified medical practitioner if you are unwell.