What conditions would cause electricity to create carbon monoxide?
I've been mulling whether the local gaseous makeup of air is changed by electricity running along a wire. My previous question is on hold, and this one is different anyway.
I couldn't find exactly what I needed on google. The corona effect is close, but on my fictional world the composition of the air is much higher in oxygen. It's not earth. There are two suns, and solar output is weaker. The ice caps are enormous. Some of the help I received on the previous question suggested corona effect. That might work but doesn't really make carbon - containing gases.
The best gas for my world based on the inhabitants (which breathe oxygen but are more severely impacted by carbon monoxide) would be carbon monoxide. Combustion makes this, but not sure electrical arcing would.
Specifically, I need an electric fence to create a gas (CO ideally) that is different in concentration from the surrounding air, by virtue of whether the fence is on or not. I can work with other gases which is why I didn't constrain it before.
I've received tremendous input from the community on the meta forum. Thank you in advance for your help. I've really been struggling with this.
You guys are awesome.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/92965. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
Since it is specifically for one set of wires, and carbon monoxide is caused by burning, then this set of wires could have a coating that is slowly burning when the power is on.
It could be an insulator that is just breaking down and buring under the very high current, or it could be some pollution that has built up on the wire that burns off when it is powered up.
This would especially be true if there was a short somewhere along the line, which could cause the wire to heat up much higher than normal.
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