home experiment - How explosive is hydrogen gas?

I want to electrolyze water to get oxygen and hydrogen. I want to mix them in a regular balloon and ignite it. How much hydrogen would you need in a 2:1 ratio with air for it to be dangerous? Is this generally a safe experiment?

Answer

First, let me say that I've enjoyed many times exploding soap bubbles of about one milliliter filled with hydrolysis gas. That is 1 cubic centimeter. That will give you a sound that rings in your ears in a decent sized living room. You may wish to use ear protection for the experiment.

50 ml will have an effect in a lecture hall that not only wakes up everyone, but also may make people complain.

Now while the explosive limits of hydrogen in air range from about 18 -- 60 % the flammable limits are from 4 -- 75 %, in oxygen the limit of flammability goes all the way from 4% to 95% read: for practical purposes, hydrogen in oxygen is always at least a flammable mixture.
For comparison, gasoline in air is flammable roughly between 1.5 - 7%.

However, you start with a stochiometric mixture which is ideal for explosion (after all, that's why you do it, right?), and it is in oxygen, not in air. So even if you "only" have a flammable mixture reaching an ignition source (e.g. electric switch), chances are quite high that as the ignition proceeds through the mixture, it can reach a zone where the gas/air mixture is explosive. Also, because hydrogen is so much lighter than air, it tends to accumulate under the ceiling, so even if there is enough air in the room that an ideal mixture would not be explosive, chances are that there is an explosive layer of gas. (Same with gasoline or, practially more relevant: solvent from glue for parquet floor tiles)

The safety relevant points are:

• the limits of explosion and flammability are, even in air, extremely wide.


• limits of flammability are important even if there happens to be no explosive mixture: hydrogen is a small and light molecule that diffuses fast. If the air you breathe happens to have a hydrogen concentration within the flammability limits, any ignition will burn deep into your throat on its way to the lungs.