Cheap homemade capacitors

[Phil]

 
A few years ago I had a thought regarding high power capacitors that could be built easily by cheapskate?.? Err?? ?budget-minded? experimenters.
I thought of using Styrofoam plates as the dielectric and heavy-duty aluminum foil as the plate. Since then I read somewhere on the Internet that someone tried this idea but used Styrofoam cups instead of the plates.
I think this would be a really great way to build a quick, cheap ?Super-Capacitor? and the beauty of this idea is you could build a 6-foot tall (or whatever size you wanted to try) for pocket change.
For those experimenters that think this idea has merit and wants to try it I would suggest cutting the foil ?plates? a little smaller than the plates and then connect them with a ?foil strap?? on each side. The straps could be two long pieces (about 1-3 inches wide depending on size of your stack) then making a fold at each plate and putting a drop of instant super glue on the end of the fold, this will hold the strap in place and when the array is ?tightened? up the fold will make contact with each plate. On the ends you could use a Styrofoam plate that is completely wrapped in heavy aluminum foil with a section of copper wire wrapped into the foil (you can use a buncha foil on the end plate) and to insure you have a good connection to the foil I would use stranded copper wire and ?fan? out the end of the wire.
I haven?t had a chance to put together a test ?unit? yet but I will post results when I get around to it.

[Vorg]

YOu can get Styrene sheets from a hoby store. package says Evergreen Scale Models. The package I got for model building had 1 each .010", .020", and .040" thick and cost $2. THe sheets are 12" x 6". Note, they are not styrofoam, they are Sheet Styrene.

[hartiberlin]

Well, for a supercap you need graphite or active charcoal material, otherwise you will not have the storage of the
ions inside the material.
You needs lots of surface in the double layer. So to speak it easily you need electrode, that
can store
lots of ions and that is mostly any graphite or active charcoal.

Regards, Stefan.

[raburgeson]

Try this and tell me how you make out.Get a roll of the thickest Alum.foil you can find 14"
wide and a roll of freezer wrap 18" wide. roll out the amun. foil cut it so you get 2 equal lengths.
Solder leads out the sides on the ends on the same proscetive corner, lay 1 out on the floor and
cover it with the freezer wrapwith a 2" border all the way around. Fold the wrap and go back
over it to make it double thick. Turn the other piece of foil aroun and lay it over the first.
Fold the freezer wrap borders in, then roll the whole thing up, wrap the outside. And please be
carefull not to kill yourself with it.

[raburgeson]

Forgot to tell you to make the wire leads long enough to put a 2" fold in them.