This is part of my indiegogo campaign at www.indiegogo.com/projects/con... it is a metal air battery - actually an aluminum air salt water battery - that - to be honest is super simple to make and can be used as an emergency battery
Ben, I can't comment directly on your post as I have just added you as a friend - but Ali forms Aluminium Oxide - this process is corrosion and rusting - they are pretty much the same thing. Actually that is not strictly true - rusting is an oxidative process normally applied to iron. Rusting is a subset of corrosion. Anyway it's all a bit of a hair splitting exercise as I clearly mean it is the reaction of aluminium with oxygen to form the oxide that leads to the electrochemical potential of the cell. Of course this passivates the aluminium surface so a good electrolyte helps this passivation layer NOT to form. Hope this helps
This makes sense for super light designs of batteries when weight is important, like camping or space missions. Also, human erm waste waters work well for activating them, so no bulk anywhere. Best wishes for the campaign Robert..it's a winner :)
Bob, I've seen your PVA+KOH solid electrolyte video. That seems very doable & I shall do it one day. Will that work with Al-Airbattery? What I have in mind is to use stainless-steel mesh (Ref-Thoisoi2) bonded with activated carbon for the cathode. This carbon-coated mesh, I plan to place in contact with a sheet of solid gel-electrolyte which in turn will contact the aluminium to make a stack of 10-14 cells in series to make 24v.
Fantastic work Mr. Murray-Smith , i've found your channel yesterday and i'm already a fan , a couple of questions here : - Do you think it's possible to reach 2 volts with this battery? on what depends? - Have you been tested it connecting multiple batteries serially? do you have some measurements or data? Thanks and again , you rocks!!
Really cool stuff Robert...if you mixed the carbon powder with silicone and put the sponge in it would that work? Or does the silicone create resistance and lower the conductivity?
You probably shouldn't use a metal to contact the carbon sponge, because together with the electrolyte it leads to corrosion. Instead, you have to use something like graphite, which doesn't suck in electrolyte, and then contact the graphite.
Have you considered using hydrated chicken feather that have been popped like popcorn around 700 degrees. This will produce carbon nano tubes with many applications. Such as hydrogen storage and graphine applications
One youtuber found that mixing some manganese dioxide with the carbon improved the voltage. Also a salt water with aluminum salt ought to help as well. Can you make aluminium salt with the help of muratic acid and hydrogen peroxide.
Another problem with using NaOH or KOH as an electrolyte is that they will react with the aluminium whether you have any load connected or not, and the reaction can become very exothermic and violent with bigger batteries and higher concentration electrolyte, producing loads of hydrogen gas and heat.
You keep mentioning in this video that aluminium rusts but it doesn't it corrodes but doesn't rust would you explain to me what you mean or are you saying that it corrodes which it does but I'm just trying to find out what you mean by it rusting as it will clarify my views on this brilliant material
Robert you are an amazing man. I like that you support open-source and oppose patents. I'm an engineer that works independently too, and I abhor how the government only seems to support big businesses. By keeping everything free and patent-free, we can sidestep ridiculous bureaucracy and the hideously unethical practices of corporations. I will support your indiegogo project next week when I've got some money in the bank, and I will put it on my facebook page to spread the word.
cheers mate - the thing about patents is it screws everybody including the epatent holders - it's the main reason the US lost its position as the world electronics centre to Japan as in order to make anything the Americans have to run a whole gauntlet of patent problems but the japanese who don't have the same restrictions raced ahead.
Thanks for the great video. Could I ask you a question? Is it possible to build a magnesium air battery in a canister like form and shape? Me and 2 of my friends are making a Magnesium Air Power Bank for our research project for our 4th Year in High School (2nd Year HS in K-12 countries) And is our research possible? Thanks
it's a metal air battery -they are not really reversible - it will last until the ali is coated with oxide - if you use a different electrolyte it will eat away the oxide and it will last until the ali is gone
Have a google search and see what is currently being used - there are quite a few and theyare used for a whole host of reasons - for example salt water is really cool for emergency batteries, the japanese pissed on it - an interesting idea!! to name just a couple - so have a look around and see what you fancy experimenting with
Robert Murray-Smith Haha the japanese are too funny for words. How about if the aluminium was granulated, wouldn't that have a faster reaction and hence give off a bigger current?
yep - the voltage wouldn't increase as it is limited by the electropotential of the reaction but you would get the amps out quickly - that's not necessarily a good thing - but if you had a reason for doing it then why not
Hmm. I've been subscribed to your channel for a small while, hadn't seen this yet. I actually have an aluminum foundry and machine tools - and nearly a ton of clean aluminum that I have melted into ingot. Could you send me a message? I'd like to hear your opinion on scaling these batteries up. Thank you
2 years Late but just letting you know aluminum is a heavy metal just like lead and mercury and will build up in nervous tissue. It causes the same damage over time.
@@melgibson6331 what you said is true. But we have to have abalanced approch to everything that is something Robert is trying teach. Handle things out of knowledge and learning while being responsible for our actions. Al,Hg,Pb never belongs in living organisms but Al is the 3 largest quantity element in the earth's crust. Hard to avoid it, might as well us it for good in a resposible way. That's whats missing.People being held resposible for their own actions.
Hi. Great videos. I was wondering, can you demonstrate how the molten air battery is composed? The type of molten air battery I'm talking about are the Iron-air, carbon-air, Vanadium Boride-air battery described in this link: www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=35726.php. The electrolyte is molten salt. I'm just wondering exactly how they work and are made. They are rechargeable and have huge energy densities. It would be interesting to see one demonstrated.
I wonder if a real sea spong would work better. Real spongs have far superior properties compared to man made sponges. Porosity, retention of fluid and low resistance to fluid flow thru it. Maybe those properties would benefit the carbon electrode. We often have to copy God's design to do things better.
