When making ozone, should I be worried about hexavalent chromium?

Question

from an arc of 12,000 volts, Ive arced it before and the rods get a thin coat of black stuff. I am using 316ss, what If I switch the ss with pure silver, what would I get then.

Answer 1

ss=stainless steel, correct?  The black coating sounds more like a nickel oxide than one of chromium to me.  Nickel oxides are also carcinogenic...  The silver will probably still oxidize in the presence of ozone - expect to see some Ag2O and maybe even AgO.  Such oxide coatings might decrease the performance of your apparatus, but I don't think they are much to worry about otherwise.

Watch the melting point of silver though (961C vs. ~1400C for stainless steel)  - the arc will be very hot, and I would be somewhat surprised if the rods did not melt.

You could try tungsten as well - get TIG electrodes from a welding supplier.  They will oxidize to some degree (probably will get WO3), but they have the highest melting point of any metal, and the oxide is not that toxic.