I "think" fresh elctrolyte is about 10% sulfuric acid in 90% water. With the sulfates embedded to the plates, the sulfuric acid portion will be very weak.
I don't recommend performing any chemical reactions in your back yard, but if you're going to do something anyways...
Wear clothes you don't care about and will not wash ever (will contaminate washing machine). Nitrile gloves and goggles, plus a face shield (may sound like overkill, but my mom has one eye, so...). Keep a 5-gallon bucket of water handy for dunking and flushing.
Slowly add the electrolyte to a bucket of water to dilute it (never pour water into acid). Then you can slowly add a watery solution with some bicarbonate of soda in it).
Wait for fizzing to stop, and occasionally test for Ph. Continue until it reads neutral (7.0, PS, if Coca-Cola syrup was 1/10th a point more acidic, it would have to be transported as a hazardous material)
I am not familiar with phosphoric acid, except I've heard its very nasty. Please post your results and any emergency room details, if applicable.
Nope.
It's stronger than that. I guessed at around 40% when I first read your post, but a quick look-up gives it around 30%.
As a chemistry technician I once made-up some from conc. sulphuric, it hissed and spat and got quite warm, and I was glad when I'd finished!
."Slowly changing the world, one watt at a time!"[ Parent ]
I was figuring about 40%, but 30% sounds more reasonable. I have added 5ml total acs sulfuric to each of the cells in one of the batterys, the other has a total of 3ml added per cell. I have no idea what the volume capacity is, for each cell im figuring 16fl ounces. With what ive added so far I dont think ive even come close to adding 10%. Im doing my best to recover the original electrolite.
The greatest quantity of anything that ive added is distilled water, both batterys together consumed nearly a half gallon of it. Thery were pretty low, infact only one cell in each battery even had electrolite over the plates.
For what its worth, the specific gravity has raised, after a charging cycle. this battery was topped off with distilled, then 3ml per cell was added. After a charge of about 10hrs, it hit 14.10 volts and vented a little. I then checked specific gravity in the cells and it rasied a little. there are some new pics at the bottom of the page.
JW[ Parent ]
