3 ms·

Distilled water does not conduct electricity. It is the dissolved ions in the water that allow electricity to conduct. You may be able to clean the PI to such a

Distilled water does not conduct electricity. It is the dissolved ions in the water that allow electricity to conduct. You may be able to clean the PI to such a level that nothing dissolves into the water when it is submerged. https://techiescientist.com/does-distilled-water-conduct-electricity/ https://techiescientist.com/does-distilled-water-conduct-ele...

analog31 3y ago
Getting it that clean is hard. There's stuff like residual flux under the ball grid arrays and other surface mount components.
- namibj 3y ago
  AFAIK electrolysis will force you to utilize a scrubbing system anyways once you've got current passing through the water. But getting conductivity acceptably low is much less demanding than getting it this extremely low. E.g. some CO2 lasers are cooled with purified water to limit the current through it.
  - analog31 3y ago
    That's true. The YAG laser I used in grad school had the flash lamp inside a water jacket, and the light went through the water.
    - namibj 3y ago
      I mean things like CW CO2 tubes running in the kV range and being immersed in water with exposed electrodes.
lbourdages 3y ago
Even ultrapure water conducts electricity. It says right here [1] that its resistivity is 1.82×10^9 Ohm * m. This is a pet peeve of mine. We get told of conductors and insulators in school, but it doesn't work like that. Pretty much everything except a perfect vacuum conducts electricity. It's just that some materials conduct electricity so poorly that it can be rounded off to 0 in most circumstances, but there can still be measurable current flow. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_resistivity_and_conductivity?wprov=sfti1#Resistivity_and_conductivity_of_various_materials https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_resistivity_and_con...
- bongodongobob 3y ago
  Ok, sure but 1.8 billion ohms puts you in insulator territory. Same ballpark as rubber or glass. So no, you shouldn't really consider distilled water a conductor.
  - namibj 3y ago
    It's actually quite conductive when you'd try to exploit it's breakdown strength as coolant and insulation for high voltage power electronics.
- murderfs 3y ago
  A perfect vacuum conducts electricity as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwinger_limit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwinger_limit

analog31 3y ago

Getting it that clean is hard. There's stuff like residual flux under the ball grid arrays and other surface mount components.

namibj 3y ago
AFAIK electrolysis will force you to utilize a scrubbing system anyways once you've got current passing through the water. But getting conductivity acceptably low is much less demanding than getting it this extremely low. E.g. some CO2 lasers are cooled with purified water to limit the current through it.
- analog31 3y ago
  That's true. The YAG laser I used in grad school had the flash lamp inside a water jacket, and the light went through the water.
  - namibj 3y ago
    I mean things like CW CO2 tubes running in the kV range and being immersed in water with exposed electrodes.

lbourdages 3y ago

Even ultrapure water conducts electricity. It says right here [1] that its resistivity is 1.82×10^9 Ohm * m. This is a pet peeve of mine. We get told of conductors and insulators in school, but it doesn't work like that. Pretty much everything except a perfect vacuum conducts electricity. It's just that some materials conduct electricity so poorly that it can be rounded off to 0 in most circumstances, but there can still be measurable current flow. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_resistivity_and_conductivity?wprov=sfti1#Resistivity_and_conductivity_of_various_materials https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_resistivity_and_con...

bongodongobob 3y ago
Ok, sure but 1.8 billion ohms puts you in insulator territory. Same ballpark as rubber or glass. So no, you shouldn't really consider distilled water a conductor.
- namibj 3y ago
  It's actually quite conductive when you'd try to exploit it's breakdown strength as coolant and insulation for high voltage power electronics.
murderfs 3y ago
A perfect vacuum conducts electricity as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwinger_limit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwinger_limit