Patent ID: 8440080

Claim:
A portable ozone generator device for purifying water by producing ozone in situ, the device including: a housing; a rod-shaped inner electrode connected to the housing; a tubular-shaped outer electrode connected to the housing and positioned around the inner electrode, the inner and outer electrodes being spaced-apart from one another by a gap filled with some of the water to be purified when the electrodes are immersed therein; a power supply operatively connected to the electrodes to generate between them a difference of potential creating a current when the electrodes are immersed in the water, the current transforming one of the electrodes into a cathode that produces hydrogen gas bubbles in the water, and transforming the other electrode into an anode that produces mixed oxidants in the water, the mixed oxidants including the ozone in the form of ozone gas bubbles; wherein the outer electrode includes a plurality of spaced-apart holes and the outer electrode has a non-smooth outer surface between the spaced-apart holes, the outer surface of the outer electrode being intentionally made non-smooth by chemical etching to promote a coalescence of the hydrogen gas bubbles into larger hydrogen gas bubbles on the outer surface when the outer electrode is used as a cathode, thereby reducing a reactivity surface between the hydrogen gas bubbles and the ozone gas bubbles so as to increase an amount of the ozone produced in situ for treating the water and wherein edges surrounding at least some of the holes on the outer electrode have a non-smooth surface for promoting the coalescence of the hydrogen gas bubbles into larger hydrogen gas bubbles.