A battery that lasts!

[Madebymonkeys]

   Been looking at university of California using sand to replace graphite in
lithium cells.
Anyone know if this stands up theoretically?
             John.

I suspect it does, the researchers aren't daft. It's only replacing the graphite anode though.
The batts are still full of nasty stuff and likely to still be pricey.
As for making a three fold increase in batt life in a cellphone, I see a reduction in cellphone thickness more likely :-)

Give the tech a few years!

[Madebymonkeys]

Car batteries are made to fail after a short period of time.

It is much better to build its own lead acid batteries which can be maintained.

You can use rooftop plumb lead foils to build the plates and use
sulfuric acid in silicic acid ( crystalline silica )
as the electrolyte and binder.

The only problem is to find the right cases for the batteries as you can not buy empty battery cases...

If anybody has a source for empty battery cases in Europe, please let me know.

Many thanks.

As the battery industry uses too thin lead plates, these fail very shortly after 2 or 3 years...
but if you use the thick rooftop plumb lead foils these hold much longer !

Regards, Stefan.

Wow, I have never heard of anyone of my friends having to replace a car battery even after many many years!
Most branded car batteries have a 5 year guarantee. This typically means they will outlast this timeframe by some margin....otherwise the company would go bankrupt, right.

[mscoffman]

Stephen,

What I would do is build one of these 2V acid/lead cells which could be coupled together via heavy gauge cable wires. Once you determine
the case volume I think I would buy a similar battery from Trojan or Rolls Surrette to help determine the details how many plates,
spacing, area, bottom supports etc.  What I would probably do is to throw the tops out after making a 3d printer design that uses those
existing HO catalytic filler tops could screw into and two battery terminal treatments. If you are molding the plates from liquid lead
you may want to consider a fully covered tinned copper wire to decrease cell resistance.

Here is a 2V case;

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Lead-Acid-Battery-Case_638043050.html

There are other cases from this supplier if you want different. You may want to ask an operator for assistance in finding similar
items since searching for words just confuses things.

[mscoffman]

Wow, I have never heard of anyone of my friends having to replace a car battery even after many many years!
Most branded car batteries have a 5 year guarantee. This typically means they will outlast this timeframe by some margin....otherwise the company would go bankrupt, right.

You live in SoCal or Florida right? You really can not exchange the use of these two different types of batteries. Battery designs
are amazingly unstable between existing companies. You have never left your headlamps on on an older battery and then have
to replace this used car battery a month later? You need to be careful because even a new auto battery is only rated for eight such
deep cycle events! For electronics batteries are rated at so many Ah Ampere Hours, Vehicle starting batteries are rated in CCA
cold cranking amps instead. I've just completed a one year study of acid/lead batteries so if you have any questions let me know.
The interesting thing is that lead metal is a commodity, so battery price is a poor indicator of battery quality! There are a number of
specialty auto batteries coming on line, these are very high price though.


:S:MarkSCoffman

[minnie]

The storage battery sure is a marvellous device compared to say an air receiver or
super cap. The voltage of a good battery holds up until  the thing is virtually empty.
  The big snag is with every charge the capacity drops, albeit a small amount.
There is research going on with quinones which could do away with the toxic metals.
I realise it's unproven so far but the flow battery seems quite a good idea to me, I
don't know much about these things, it may be totally inappropriate. I had the idea
that a flow battery may be able to be rejuvenated whereas a solid plate battery needs
totally recycling.
               John.