Homemade battery #5

[wooliver]

There's a Homemade battery pdf online that spells in detail how to make copper/aluminum cells. While they suggest pop cans with copper tubing, i'm going with what i have: I cleaned up 3 of the 5 inch long lengths 3/4 rigid copper tubing. I split open three aluminum cans with scissors. Fashion some aluminum tubes from the aluminum sheets with vinyl tape. The Al. tubes fit into the copper tubes, and do not touch the copper. Afixed wire leads to all the tubes. Wrapped the top and bottom of each of the copper tubes with vinyl tape, so when they are gathered together they don't touch each other.

Gathered the three cells together and bound them with vinyl tape. Hooked the cells in series, with wire nuts. Placed all this into a half liter water bottle with the top cut off. Poured in a solution of half a teaspoon of Sodium Hypochloride to half a liter of water. (that's really pretty strong according to the book) 3 cells together in series only yielded slightly over one volt. This is disappointing, as the book lead me to believe each cell would make over 1 volt. The wire nuts i'm using have a hole in the end so i can test each cell without having to unwire. It all seems to add up. There is no sluggish cell, or bad connection.

Meanwhile my eight "nail cells" in series had been sitting on a towel in the open air for a day, and still yield 6 volts. They cannot produce enough current to light the smallest LED.

I know if i mix stronger solutions i'll get more reaction and more voltage but much shorter cell life.

Lead/acid wins again.

[fungus]

Each cell will give 1v, but they'll need to be in a separate container for each otherwise current will simply flow through the electrolyte ..

[spinningmagnets]

You probably already know this, but...

Some aluminum cans have a coating so the soda/beer doesn't get an "aluminumy" taste, may need sanding?

Your experiments are very interesting.

[wooliver]

SEPERATE CONTAINERS - that's probably most of the problem. I add or subtract electrolyte with a snuffer bottle. While i add or subtract, i can watch the voltmeter. i did notice that i could peak the voltage by reducing the fluid. This unwanted "sharing" would be the reason for this.

My design conundrum: what for the inside plate/tube? What for the outside container/plate? i just found a large stock of big aluminum tubing. It was a three piece flagpole kit. Makes me think i should make the container out of PVC tubing as there is no readily available caps for 2.5 to 3" aluminum tubing. I'm also thinking coppertubing inside the Al. Probably too much distance between plates for good current production. I can find copper caps easily enough. i should probably just take that step first, and if the results are encouraging proceed from there.

Thanks for the help!

[terry5732]

What is your point with these cells. You are making good materials worth less. They are simply corroding the metals to make a tiny bit of electricity. Far less output than what is needed to make these materials to begin with.

[wooliver]

All this does seem strange without context.

Taken verbatem from my first post in the "newbie" section:

After searching on "homemade batteries" only one thread came up. Very ineteresting stuff on Aluminum/stainless cell.

I've started on several solar & wind turbine systems only to hit the wall when it came to the price of storage batteries. Many folks make their own alternators or generator and wind turbines. i haven't found any folks actively building their own cells/batteries. Well, i'm trying. I'm trying conduit (zincplated steel) and copper tubing, with an alkaline electrolyte. I'm to the point where i've made several cells and will be filling and joining in series, then for the amp/hour (could be milliamp/minute or second?) testing, who knows? Anyway i'm doing it. We'll see shortly.

Anybody out there build their own cells?

_________________________

i've learned much since then.

Thanks again!

[wooferhound]

You are making single use batteries using dissimilar metals to get the reaction making voltage. it would be better to make batteries that are rechargeable, and don't use metals as fuel to make the voltage. The following links will be most helpful to you...

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2005/5/10/0573/48284

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2004/1/20/235135/142

http://www.engineersedge.com/galvanic_capatability.htm

http://www.galvanizeit.org/showContent,173,215.cfm

http://www.eaa1000.av.org/technicl/corrosion/galvanic.htm

[wooliver]

like i said, i've learned much.

Like what a redox reaction is.

All the Best,

Wooly