[Kanga]

I am interested in the substance known popularly as MMS which is a 28% Sodium chlorite solution which is reacted with citric acid to produce chlorine dioxide for use as a general disinfection agent.

See here for information on MMS and the in vivo actions of chlorine dioxide http://www.bioredox.mysite.com/CLOXhtml/CLOXhome.htm

I have seen instructions which purport to describe a method of producing sodium chlorite by the electrolysis of sodium chloride solution see here :-

http://www.ehow.com/how_5188671_make-sodium-chlorite.html

However other information on the net suggests the principle product of this process is sodium chlorate, not chlorite.

I have constructed the processing cell described above and after allowing the cell to run for several days on a 12V DC supply drawing about 200mA with about 400mg of NaCl dissolved in 1 liter of water, the gassing at the carbon electrodes ceased. It produced a solution which has obviously some free chlorine or chlorine dioxide being released from the slight smell of chlorine.

Reacting a few drops of the solution with 10% citric acid solution gives a noticeable smell of chlorine, possibly also chlorine dioxide, which I believe smells the same, although I appreciate it is very different  chemically from chlorine.

The intention is to be able to produce chlorine dioxide by the slow reaction with citric or acetic acid for use as described for MMS (see here http://jimhumble.biz/ )

My question is, if the main product of the electrolysis is sodium chlorate not chlorite, will the reaction of citric or acetic acid still produce chlorine dioxide, not just chlorine?

If so could sodium chlorate be used instead of sodium chlorite in the MMS (Miracle Mineral Supplement) applications to produce chlorine dioxide and hypochlorous acid?

If this works then MMS could be made anywhere from common salt and not even sodium chlorite would be needed as a basic material. The implications of that would be obvious to anyone who has an understanding of the potential uses of MMS.

I am not great at chemistry, actually an engineer, but please don't hold back with the reaction equations or explanations, I'll try to follow along.

[408]

You made chlorate. not chlorite.

You can use the solid chlorate by mixing with NaCl solution, acidifying to produce ClO2, and absorbing the produced ClO2 in NaOH and H2O2 to produce sodium chlorite.

[Kanga]

Yes, thank you, I am aware of the process you describe to produce sodium chlorite, apparently it is the usual industrial scale process, but it is too complex for my purposes. I don't have a chem lab.

My main question remains:-

As the main product of the electrolysis is sodium chlorate not chlorite, will the reaction of citric or acetic acid with the solution produce chlorine dioxide, not just chlorine (perhaps some of both)?

There is obviously a gas which smells like chlorine produced, when a few drops of the resultant electrolyte is mixed with a few drops of citric acid, but chlorine dioxide smells similar to chlorine, so I believe. Is the latter also true?