2057 How To Make The Homemade Battery You May Have Been Waiting For
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- čas přidán 30. 05. 2024
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I'm 69 and grew up in Michigan. I remember Mr. Wizard on tv. He did many types of experiments. What a wonderful time to be young. To me you are the Mr. Wizard of energy. 🤩🤩🤩
Sir Robert Murray Smith does indeed have a Wizard aura exuding from him. As his enthusiasm about his ideas flow when he's sharing them with us.
I was born in the 80s and Mr. Wizard was still on the air when I was a young'un. Loved that show.
Was once installing a production line in a Mexican factory at 2 o’clock in the morning when we needed to check the polarity of a magnet. No tester! I sent my helper to go make coffee while I “thought about the problem”. Of course I had already formulated a plan based on something from Mr. Wizard. I snipped a piece of steel spring wire, straightened and magnetized it. Used whiteout correction paint to mark one end. When the coffee arrived my man was aghast to see me float the wire in it. But as it spun around I asked him which way was my home. (The North end of the wire points to a South pole of a magnet which is somewhere in Canada these days). Mr Wizard saved that company $3 million because the line was installed on time!
soon as you said the unglazed terracotta i thought "oooh reinventing the Bagdad battery"
I wonder if you could re-purpose Lead/acid car batteries (the shells) to run off this solution instead. The you could build a bank of them for running off-the-grid living. Then you could have a rechargeable power bank that could be easily and cheaply refreshed when needed. I really enjoy the things you come up with. Get's the gears turning!
yes you could
Purpose of super intelligent channel
I love these battery experiments! I just wish it was that simple to store and retrieve a few kilowatts. Would be great to just have a 25L bucket lined with carbon fiber cloth filled with lugols and a huge roll of zinc foil. I guess with enough surface area it would put out more amps and you could just use a 24v to 1.2v step down to charge it.
This begs to be used in home storage, Thank you Robert.
💯%!
I do love your battery work, we need more safe, simple & accessible batteries.
& maybe even thermal runaway proof! :)
Not unrefined or $6000/ton
OMG! Dear Sir, You Do so much for science popularization and mass education! That is why Your videos became an important part of my life! Great Great Thank You, Sir!
So clay sewer pipe and charcoal bricketts a 55 gal plastic drum and a wad of old chainlink fence and you have a big cell . You could just drain the electrolyte into another drum to turn off . Placing the 2 drums on either end of a tetter-totter to eliminate the need for a pump. Placing the drums on their sides would shorten the lifting hight and a sliding counterweight on the tetter like on a beam scale takes the work out of lifting the drums with the tetter.
I always love the battery videos! I wish we could have a battery design contest on this channel with this chemistry. Would anyone else be interested in that?
Science fair show-n-tell! That'll be cool! :D
Sorry for the dumb question but is it possible to show recharging? Just put power in that simple and the reaction reverses? Would make a great time-lapse
Agreed, maybe he did that on purpose as to nudge us to do it :)
Yet, mysteries in general scare me because idk what kinda of gases it could expell, there has to be a catch right?
Very nice Sir, can't wait to try it.
Love you chemistry videos. Especially on DIY battery projects such as this video being really effective and practical. This is Golden. Brilliant
More of this sort of stuff please! Battery chemistry and technology is very interesting and it's the logical next step to generators. Your work is amazing! Cheers!
Rechargeability is super important as is number of cycles. Would definitely like to see more work on this
Excellent idea Robert. BTW, any chance you could paint your prop tips yellow? It would make it easier to see when it spins 😁
hopefully one day we might see several cells connected together being charged by your wind turbine? Another great video, thank you.
The more you emphasize how easy something is to "get ahold of," the more likely it is that some bureaucrat will make it her life's work to deprive us of it.
Brother you are amazing! And the stuff you come up with is incredible... thank you
This is a bit easier than the zinc sulphate method. Zinc and iodine in alcohol, evaporated yields zinc iodide. Awesome stuff.
cheers mate
This reaction is VERY aggressive and iodine sublimates extremely easily so you will generate a lot of elemental iodine vapor WITH a flammable liquid. Be extremely careful if you actually do this.
I'm lucky here. Some of the rocky beaches have hunks of natural graphite as some of its beach pebbles. 1K per inch, give or take.
I love your content. I have learned so much from your videos and presentations. You are a gift to the common self sufficient person. God bless you for all that you do. I am proud to be a supporter.
now a practical 3D printed design just like your emergency motors would be cool. like using Zach Freedman's Gridfinity 1.0 as a base to stack the cells into. to make a 5V, 12V, 24V, 48V versions all nice and tidy, sealed up, easy to maintain and disconnect etc..
Great idea!
I see the mechanical "switch" of removing the zinc as an engineering opportunity for the EV market. Any idea on how many recharge cycles this home brewed version can expect?
That would be interesting
my guess is it will be down to the break down of the separator and thus the ability to form dendrites between the two plates, shorting it out, the better at resisting that, the longer it will last and the dendrites forming on one side to form more of a foam like surface area, would cause it to discharge faster and release more amperage and thus making the use of it breaking it in so to speak.
Many 😉
You mechanically recharge it by adding more solution to it. You should also probably remove the zinc iodine. You're just basically rebuilding the battery, I believe.
@@david2ljdavid2lj56 Yes, I only show how to make a basic zinc iodine battery. This and my V3 cell is electrically rechargeable.
This is pretty cool, Rob! Is off gassing a problem when charging?
Exactly what I was thinking 😂
I guess I will just give it a go and find out. 😅
You'll probably have to top off the water due to evaporation, but I don't think it produces hydrogen or anything like that. 1.2V is right on the borderline of when electrolysis starts to occur, but it usually takes a bit more than that. Raising the pH can reduce electrolysis, but unfortunately, zinc hydroxide is insoluble, and you don't want too many other metal contaminants or you'll just be wasting power. Just look for bubbles I guess.
That actually looks like it has potential, with an optimized design, for a home backup. Maybe a few 55 gallon plastic drums, and some homemade clay separators. But I gotta ask... have you tried to DIY a nickel/iron cell? There are quite a few of the old Edison nickel/iron cells that are still usable, 100 years in, having gone through 3 or 4 changes of electrolyte, which is just sodium hydroxide solution.
Love it - please make a series using cells to meet common voltage requirements in an off-grid use!
TWIZZY!
Shout it from the rooftops.!!
Yes this is exactly the battery I needed right now! Thank you so much Dr. RMS! (great initials btw)! As your compatriot Bond from across the pond has said, "I hate small portions of anything, particularly if they (are) bad" - but this looks pretty good and scalable as is, although I'll still beef it up with the literature references you mentioned. CHEERS MATE! (I also love your KOH battery from another vid, amazing, tks!)
I built a 1.8V battery 8 years ago. with kitchen ingredients. i like everything you do. many similar ideas
a rechargeable battery would be more interesting?
i lost everything i had 8 years ago and am currently in the process of getting everything new.
Used to use Lugol's solution in the lab to for the stool examination, to differentiate ova and parasites. So now you can have a battery and check to see if you have worms LOL.
Rats! I was looking forward to washing my cat in Lugol's but you kyboshed that idea. lol!
Well done Robert, everything old is new again. I've been buying Lugol's in tiny little bottles for a few years for my health and sterilising the rain water at $40 Aust a pop. You info has me thinking I should concoct my own and as a spin off, some home power batteries. Thank you for the idea.
would definitely be interesting to see this in a 3D printed enclosure (4 or 10 of them together wired in series for a 4.8V or 12V battery respectively) as well as how it reacts thermally to being charged...
as always, today I learned from you Mr Murray-Smith... so you have my heartfelt thanks ;)
I have a dream I call FREE.
Fast Replaceable Electrolyte Exchange.
Instead of millions of AA sized lithium batteries to try to uncase and recycle liquids are simple and follow nature's designs.
I envision a large tank with lead acid battery design but different chemistry.
You could pull into a charging station and quickly drain and refill the electrolyte and off you go.
The station can refresh the electrolyte using whatever is best.
Wind, solar, generator or plug in.
People can have a tank of joy juice charging at home to refuel and run the house.
No more exploration, drilling, mining, refining, transporting and storing explosive gas and lithium batteries.
Bring able to make your own fuel could be a game changer for isolated developing countries.
This seems to be right up your ally.
Help me Obi-wan.
You definitely earned my subscription.🎉
Absolutely love it. Who would have thought about going back to the beginning. LOL. That's where I started a few years ago with me studying the first voltaic pile. Sometimes the first solution is the best solution. Nuclear does the same thing with their rods. Too funny. Just like making your tea. To strong? Take out the tea bag silly. A good source for Zink? Our American penny. Once you take off the copper plate.
Now THIS sparked my interest!
Due to the zinc dissolving into the iodide solution until it's gone, it isn't something that will last long term.. But, it is nice to know that a battery can be made from these materials in a pinch.
These videos cover every form of energy storage, including the kitchen zinc.
cool video. you should link to the original video in the header since it's a little difficult to find. ( 1658 A DIY Battery That Is Crazy Simple To Make ) in case anyone else is looking.
So glad to see you doing battery stuff!😉🙂
Well done Robert - yet again! As a possible design of this battery, i wonder if the zinc negative lift out could become a way of also controlling amperage, as it will be limited to 1.2 volts but the more the stick is immersed the greater the current flow. A neat way to have a battery with an amperage rotary control knob!
Love this video, please make a bigger one.
After so many build videos I keep forgetting you're a chemist. LOL
lol
Nice. There is clay everywhere where I am at, it's easy to find; many deposits you can just pull large glops of clay right up. Now to see how much I can store in something like a 5g/20l bucket - we're pulling two ceiling fans out of the living room that are perfectly functional (replacing with flush dimmable lights) so I can potentially build a completely self contained harvest/storage system that I can throw in the camp trailer and go.
I just realized that since you're already using a fabric for one of the electrodes it can be coated with a couple layers and rolled up - now I can just stuff it in a round bucket with the lid on it and a couple threaded studs to attach wires to the inside/outside of the lid.
@@russellzauner so two threaded electrodes once the zinc is in solution?
I worked as a zinc plater for a plating and powder coating company. Seems like your basically plating and stripping the plating over and over as a battery, pretty cool. Im going to make it. Am I correct that the potassium iodine antiseptic available for disinfectant is the same solution?
It's basically a much more concentrated solution, so you still should wear gloves.
most/all (disclaimer) batteries rely on the same RDOX processes as plating - selecting electrodes and solutions to store and give up the ions as required. Note that the original single use battery was a carbon-Zinc battery - basically putting the zinc into solution as it discharged - not so different to this open top solution (different electrolyte).
The 'self-discharge prevention' is just the same as the poorly named 'salt-water battery.' A battery which has no electrolyte - you add the salt water only when it's time to use. The energy density and power density are both awful by every measure, but they have one advantage: Unlimited self life. You sometimes find them in emergency locator beacons, because you can still depend on them even if your emergency beacon has been sitting forgotten in the bottom of the life-jacket locker for the last thirty years.
Volta stack style with zinc copper zinc copper and inbeetween each layer charcoal disks soaked in salt water...so 3 disks per cell and stack 50 cells or more you should be able too get usable amps but want too parralel like 30 stacks off 9 maybe and lay cells sideways in a pool off salt water but so only the charcoal disks are sat in the solution so the metals don't connect...should work quiet well and all need too do is top up electrolyte zero charging needed...what you think?
Thank you! This is what I was looking for! Amazing!
If you could also post links to the materials you used that would be helpful!
So what if someone had a car that ran off of batteries constructed similarly to your terracotta pot and went to a charge station and instead of plugging in the car, they were to swap battery fluids instead? Could the old fluid then be refreshed/recharged? It could close the gap that gasoline car drivers love to throw out when comparing refueling to recharging.
battery swapping will be faster and easier than "filling up" at consumer level
I think there's a company in India that's prototyping that system. Although I think they swap the whole battery out, and are using smaller lithium iron phosphate batteries or something
So the way I understand it, if the electrolyte fluid is now full of Zinc, you'd have almost no anode left (the Zinc that *was* on the anode is now in the solution). So just adding fresh solution would eat away at any remaining Zinc on that anode, until you're left with nothing.
@@dylan_00 I understand it to be that the zinc is redeposited on the zinc bar when charging. So unless you let the entire bar sacrifice itself to the solution it shouldn't lose much mass.
@@jimlipscomb3236 Right, but when it discharges it is dissolved into the electrolyte solution. So if you keep removing the solution with the zinc, the new solution will keep stripping away zinc, you have to recharge the battery with old solution for the zinc to return to the anode
Excellent job. 👍😁❤️😇
Beautiful! iodine is my favorite element!
Excellent info.
Great video man! As always!
This will keep police investigators busy.
Thank you bródir, great content 👏 👌 👍
Robert can you provide further links and education in building and using these on a bit larger scale if any
I wonder if you could have an equally direct method of suppressing dendrites. Maybe just pull out the zinc and allow surface tension to collapse them down periodically? Have a little wiper that spins around and flattens them down into the electrode? Use some kind of pulsed charge/discharge that favors low surface area deposition?
There are various surfactants that can be added to the electrolyte which prevent dendritic growth. Tween is one that has been used successfully.
Необычная батарея, спасибо было очень познавательно. Вы как-то упоминали про твердотельные батареи, скажите, можно ли в домашних условиях сделать твердотельную батарею из доступных материалов?
I Just love it Rob.! /Mikael
Could you house it in a 3d printed cell using a non-hydroscopic filament? then use a lifting mechanism to lift the zinc out of the housing to stop self discharge?
After this video Lugol has climbed in price
- oh so Rob is a pumper - lol... (small markets, big gains)
I was just wondering if the reaction causes fumes/gases from the zinc... or does it just dissolve?
Hmm... how would you make an automatic means of removing/re-inserting the zinc?
Very cool. I still have the autoclave lying around for the hemp battery. I wonder is this better than hemp battery?
This is Really Cool Stuff, thanks for sharing! If the cells are 1.2v each, can they be built into an expired lead-acid battery in order to repurpose the battery?
Lugol's iodide has several other uses including microbiological staining of bacteria using "Gram-staining" During which the iodine from the Lugol's solution and crystal violet form a stable complex that will not be released by decolourisation. Thus, Gram-positive bacteria will appear dark blue when viewed microscopically, whereas Gram-negative bacteria can be counterstained with safranin or dilute carbol fuchsin.
Does this need a BMS if you put a whole load of cells in series like a LiPo set up does?
Great vid mate....is there a way to make a thinner Terra Cotta membrane that might improve current flow (power density) ???
This is very interesting.
So the materials are:
- Iodide + Potassium Iodide for electrolyte
- Graphite foil for positive electrode
- Zinc strip for negative electrode
- Terracota pot for separator
- A plastic receptacle
So how long until each needs changing? And if the electrolitic solution needs changing, what is it done with it? Can it be disposed safely on a compost pile or biodegraded somehow?
And where does iodide and potassium iodide come from? If industrial civilization collapsed, how could we manufacture them?
Hello from Thunder Bay friend, ..brilliant !
why not try an icb? intermediate bulk container, ..might be a globally useful size you know and if you indexed everything you might be able to capitalize on it for all of your future bodkin thingies,....
could not find a source that says the energy density is larger than lithium. In fact practical energy densities I seen is around 100-160 wh/l while lithium is around 220 wh/l . Maybe I'm getting it wrong.
Awesome !! I wonder WHY there arent this sytem everywhere for grid balance, etc...??
there are
What if the zinc electrode is a kind of flexible base-electrode where the zinc could stick to it? I don't know if the same carbon fiber can be used for that, giving it the capability to be folded or rolled like paper in order to be removed from the electrolyte
I have a question I believe I heard in 5he video that this process makes x amont per kilo gram? So to figure amount per 55 gal drum conversion to volts .. figure kilogram weight of full 55 gal drum times the kilo gram equivalent volts. Would that equation b correct to determine plz an thank you !
Does a larger surface area of the cathode / anode relate to more amps (for the same single cell voltage)?
You've intrigued me with your observation.
No, I don't have the answer.
yes and the path through the electrolyte also affects it.
Robert, I don't know where you get your Iodine from, but even as a trained Chemist I won't get pure Iodine for cheap nor without raising a TON of flags at our local DEA equivalent… like "early morning ringing on my doorbell the next day" kind of Flags.
Iodine, specially in large quantities, is used to make Drugs… the nasty ones. As such it is a controlled substance, as its used as a drug precursor. Even if I want only a few grams, I must declare why I need it and for what I want to use it... and be either a School, University or professional Laboratory.
Although I know that chemistry from School... we made one back then
you can buy it on ebay mate www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155749210405?var=456126607384&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338723872&toolid=20006&customid=sW5u8oYZAAAAIVdFVmhcsJZmag8-AAAAAA and I checked out the USA ebay www.ebay.com/itm/394355455391?hash=item5bd16ab59f:g:i1oAAOSwM4th~z0m&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4JwPTrm4tBQWz4j9UDaQ0aNy5dzQzDc0ww0CAsA2vLvV0HxxqDPs9nRedBDil%2FMR2nL8dZXUhdwTct1sPsb9NXPlSPkbjphlT5MkL6%2F9aSAcjVNoPalU3m8azRXL9Dfcin9bAr8DDw9RM5Pzg26HUPfFxjjO68QTKYwx7Z1ftt%2FBQOEio9%2FWjdF3b7dhmt02p4uDiScdJnPZ0%2B56cKhN6kj3ZNr0IKhaQOwwhYRJkhBCqoWj7pa61ytlyuRYC3WAPU8cAaqoeDX2iqwVb0uGTlf2D0viSIRMShX%2BgIwANSUL%7Ctkp%3ABFBMosSJpNdi
@@ThinkingandTinkering
Robert, its not that I can't buy it, just not in that quantities or it will get me on half a dozen watchlists, probably even more, that are not that good to be on!
2-3g at top most here in EU. I don't like being body cavity searched every flight xP
Lugolsche Lösung on the other Hand... its expensive because you have to buy pharmaceutical products, but still possible... funny isn't it? But then, those have what? 5g on the 100ml? at a price you in the UK buy it in bulk…
So. In order to fabricate a 422 watt hour battery that should attach to or replace a 48 volt LiFePo4 battery, and if my calculations are correct I will need 40 cells like those, each having a kilogram of zinc+iodine. Unless I've got it wrong. So 40 kg of zinc and iodine for 422 watt hours @ 48 volts. Or a 100kg for 1kwh. I actually need this as power prices where I live have gone through the roof and I already have a lithium battery but it won't last through the dark hours while in daylight I have a good amount of photovoltaic energy.
your math is a bit off mate - you need around 2kg for 1kWh
@@ThinkingandTinkering
Thank you. I will re-check. :)
Thank you :)
I love your stuff
Thanks Robert, very useful information,but how do you dispose of it ,safely? Genuine question as the longevity of this is obviously limited and the components will need to be replaced.
What kind of discharge are we looking at? In other words, how much energy do we need to push into it to keep it stable?
This battery type has intrigued me! I ended up making one just yesterday, with suboptimal components. I didnt have zinc strips handy, so i bought some zinc plated screws. I didnt have carbon fiber or even carbon rods so i bought the thickest mechanical pencil lead i could find, and apparently in the USA, elemental iodine is restricted, so i bought providone iodine antiseptic.
I got 1.3 volts out of it, and interestingly i get 1.28v when the electrodes are not seperated by the clay pot and 1.30v when they are.
Anyways, my question to those more knowledgable to me, is there anything inherantly worse with iodine antiseptic vs just mixing it up from the raw elements yourself? I was considering boiling off the water of the solution to give more a more concentrated, and, i think, more energy dense electrolyte, but i am an absolute novice at chemistry and i barely understand enough to even know how to look up the information i need at this point.
Iodine is highly flammable, it was also used to cook meth before. You could melt pennies to get zinc, it's only illegal to melt currency if you try to profit from it.
Is copper/ zink + copper sulphate electrolyte battery worth making ?
Does it require any special charging profile or will a standard charge controller work?
As a improvement to the battery couldn't you add some of your organic graphene to a batch of clay with the temper material and make conductive ceramic terracotta? Couldn't you layer a bit of normal terracotta to the outside to act as your permeable barrier? And mechanically to take the zinc out of solution, just have a manual crank.
Though I can see an issue occuring where bits of zinc might break off and keep the cell running at low capacity. And long term, it might be good to discuss how to recycle or dispose the materials used when they are used up.
What's the drawback to using it in electric car batteries then? It sounds *amazing*.
Not enough output?
I am guessing that the way you said it means that if you put a larger piece of zinc in the solution the milliamps would be improved to higher numbers 200 300 400 etc
been looking at various things for the laser formed graphene to use as a "flux" the way you used borax, for some... reasons. ;)
brilliant
anyway to get the iodine crystals back out for some sort of recharging?
After the first discharge when you have zinc in solution, could you replace the negative electrode with carbon fiber as well that doesn't get consumed so that you always have an electrode to charge zinc back onto?
yeah, you can do that if you want to save on zinc
@@lautaromorales2903 thanks!
Fascinating
The ceramic pot made me think of the Baghdad battery
Maybe you could cut long strips of graphite foil and nickel foil then a thin layer of air-dry terracotta clay in-between, and roll it up into a cell?
Love this battery tech , only read couple of days ago western Australia natural hydrogen found under ground and they've linked it's creation to natural lead and iron underground creating it clearly with water basen under their.
Well the news is out Rob i wonder if lead and iron could be useful fuel cell with your extra magnets or for a battery ?.
Also Germanium has a second metal for a battery combo i can't recall if a salt not lithium or iron but it releases power dry , Germanium is in the solid state battery...
Hi Rob. In Australia the iodine and potassium iodide are restricted chemicals in its raw forms. I can get some lugols.
would this make a D cell (zinc carbon battery) rechargeable?, by just adding some lugils? into the mn02 paste?
How to avoid self - discharge: the dreaded air-gap, domesticated.
I don't know if you will read this post, but I have a unique engineering project that is right up your alley -- It is a different paradigm for your standard electric generator. What you have is a stationary ring of coils on the outside, and a rotating ring of magnets on the inside. The dimensions are such that your inner ring should have substantial surface area. Attached to this inner ring you have a series of closely-spaced, ring-shaped blades. Air or water is passed over these blades tangentially, forming a vortex, driving the magnetic rotor ring.
If you have ever seen a Tesla-Turbine, you might have an idea where this is going. Like the Tesla Turbine, this system makes use of the boundary effect -- but instead of transferring the energy to a central drive-shaft, the energy is passed to the outer ring. Larger area=lower torque. The high rotational speeds that would cause the Tesla-Turbine's blades to stretch and warp from tension are now converted to compression and distributed along the length of the ring.
Due to the lower torque requirement, the system could make use of much lower input energy, and be able to handle much higher rotational speeds. Finding the optimal geometry would be the real challenge. I hope someone will take up this challenge -- I look forward to see what interesting designs and applications people come up with for this system.
i have made a few generators based on this idea mate - sorry
@@ThinkingandTinkering Don't be sorry, that is awesome news! How did it work out for you?
@@walterbaltzley4546 - that was most likely British for - not unique - all the best of British, to your endeavour ..
Energy in vs energy out - there will be losses along the way, hopefully you survive and exit more knowledgeable and stronger.
Can it be recharged with solar or wind or is it replaceing the electrodes and electrolyte
if stir if will if give more of a charge or will it reconvert if you add a charge
I wonder if it would be possible to 3D print a semi-permeable membrane(or similar structure) that would facilitate a modular battery approach with this chemistry?
Maybe 3D print some clay?
That is a fair point! As far as I know there are only a couple of off the shelf printers that will print Ceramics and clay, but that would certainly do it!
A very interesting design. I think the design challenge for making a closed battery out of this will mostly be in the mechanical design and how to close it off, keep it from sloshing around. Does the carbon fiber sheet have good conductance over the whole surface? I've only really looked at the mechanical properties of it, so I don't know if it would be better to have a strip of conductive metal around the outside of it so that all the strands have an electrical connection.
Can this solution be frozen? While not practical, it would stop passive discharge.
Anything can be frozen if you make it cold enough. But I expect you’ll find that the ions are still mobile and the battery will self discharge anyway.