Does water at a high temperature seperate into hydrogen and oxygen atoms?
Hi Nick YES. Water will dissociate into its constituent elements at high temperatures. It’s a complicated subject – for example, in the extreme temperatures used in Plasma Emission Spectroscopy, water is ‘broken down’ into its constituent elements, ions. The temperature at which water will start to break down into its elemental components is 2,726.85 Centigrade. The process is complicated, inefficient and does not run to completion. You are, in essence, attempting to introduce an instability within the water molecules to cause this dissociation. You’re looking at a temperature and pressure dependent equilibrium state, delG(T,P) = -RTlnK, and there is no one (T,P) state at which water abruptly ceases to be stable. But – to keep it simple – if it’s hot enough water will separate in to hydrogen and oxygen. You may want to explore this more by refering to degree level physical chemistry literature or look at the theory behind cold fussion/water fuel cells – which are still regarded as unpr
