Successful replication of the Aquion battery technology

[hartiberlin]

Hi All,

after Lidmotor having success with my idea to use 2 carbon based electrodes for his
Litharge ( lead oxide ) battery,
see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g4ZBJ8KFbw&feature=plcp
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNhMhzMnwT8&feature=plcp

I pondered how to come up with a different oxide than lead oxide for
such a cell, cause PbO is so toxic...

Then I remembered hearing about the Aquion cell via Mark Dansie in the Smartscarecrow show recently on Youtube...
and I had another look at:


http://www.aquionenergy.com/blog/bid/108285/What-s-Inside-an-Aqueous-Hybrid-Ion-Battery


and saw that they use MnO2, the material that is also used in Zinc Carbon and Alkali Mangan batteries !


So this Manganese dioxide is a real good replacement for the Lead oxide and it is also cheap
and readily availabe, also from old used up batteries ! You will find it at the used up battery disposals
in every supermarket...


Well. This is how I built the cell:

First I used some carbonfiber thread and a graphite pencil lead to fix the next layer of a carbon fiber sheet to it.

This will be the Minus pole in this cell.
Then I put a layer of toilet paper above it and soaked it from above with a concentrated solution of
NaSO4 in destilled water..
Then I poured on this "NaSO4-wetted" toilet separator a good chunk of wet Manganese Dioxide ( MnO2)
and then layed a layer of stainless stell mesh metal onto it.
The stainless steel layer is then the PLUS pole of this battery.

Now I charged this cell up with my battery charger.. ( My DC power supply is still broken...have to get a new one...)
on the 6 Volts setting...

The cell goes to about 2.7 Volts maximum ( mainly due to supercapaitor- double layer effect) and then comes
down to around 1.6 Volts open circuit voltage.

If you shortcircuit it, it will first deliver shortly over 100 mA going down then to around 10 mA after around
a minute or so ( for a about 5 x 10 cm cell, not so much surface area)..

But I could only light an incandescent 1.2 Volts - 0.22 Amps bulb for just under 1 second...

but I was able to light a yellow LED for a few seconds, which has around 1.65 Volts threshold voltage...

Well I have to build myself a Joule Thief now to see, how long such a cell wuíll power this and will do longer tests
now...

Regards, STefan.

P.S: Enclosed 3 pictures, first showing the open circuit voltage of 1.63 Volts,
next the short circuit current of 11.6 mA after about a minute or so
and the next pic lighting the yellow LED after freshly charged.

[hartiberlin]

P.S: What I don´t like about this cell:

It needs this stainless stell mesh as the electron collector from the
MnO2 which makes this cell heavy and expensive...as stainless steel is not cheap....


Just using 2 carbon fiber sheets I had another cell with just lampblack and
MnO2 and NaSO4 with destilled water between 2 carbonfiber sheets,  I got 0.75 Volts and quite a good
amount of mA of current...so only about half the voltage but simular current...

Well, I will work on a mixed oxide electrolyte like mixed MnO2, TiO2 and ZnO
or something like this and try to get the voltage up this way...


Will soon also post videos about it.

STay tuned.

Regards, STefan.

[hartiberlin]

If you want to know more about the Aquion battery,
you can download a PDF file here:

http://www.aquionenergy.com/technology/

You have to quickly register to get it...

[b_rads]

If you want to know more about the Aquion battery,
you can download a PDF file here:

http://www.aquionenergy.com/technology/

You have to quickly register to get it...

Thanks for the link, I got the file and will look it over.  Very interesting build.  I like the idea that they claim this battery is non-toxic.  Would be great if we can avoid lead and acids.
Thanks for the heads-up on this.
Brad

[hartiberlin]

Well, I experimented some further:

You really don´t need the stainless stell mesh current collector plate.

You can replace it with just a good carbon fiber sheet !
That is a very nice result !

So now we can use the cheaper and lighter carbonfiber sheets and this also allows
us to easier roll up the cells and maybe make them more suited for
electric cars, as the weight is thus reduced also  greatly !

I can get now the same voltages and currents from just the 2 carbon fiber sheets as the electrodes
as was before with the one carbonfiber and stainless steel electrodes...

It seems one has to  charge them some more minutes  so they polarize okay and the ions have time
to go into the materials internally...


Now I will see, if I can get even more current and voltage by mixing in more other alkaline
oxide components like TiO2, ZnO and also try mixed electrolytes like adding MgSO4
and/or Alum....

Maybe this will power up these cells even more ?

We will see...


Regards, Stefan.