Getting amps from small selfmade DIY Zinc Air cells, amazing !

[hartiberlin]

p.s. by using graphite paper for the mix you will not need anymore the stainless steel mesh so the battery gets cheaper again. Just mix graphite doped with colloidal silver and KNO3 and a acrylic binder and put this on a sheet of paper and you have the perfect conducting electrode for it. then you only need KOH solution and a zinc plate and that is all you need.. It is simular to my AL/Air battery.

[hartiberlin]

Today I experimented with trying to do a simplified Grätzel
solarcell, which did not work yet ( I don´t yet have Tindioxid for the glas
and also no iodide solution yet... will be done in a few days..)
but I saw something else.

I mixed Titandioxid with lampblack ( conductive carbon) and hibiscus tee and
a bit vinegar
and put it onto a glas disc and heated it up with
a candle so I also had lamp black from the candle and the
dried up mix as a film on the glas surface.


When I used this glas disc as one electrode and
my graphite paper ( pure lampblack with acrylic binder)
as the other electrode,
I already got about 0.3 Volts
in saltwater electrolyte( NaCL -water solution).

But there was no light sensivity from the glas disc...!

So it seems the Grätzel Solarcells really needs the  PN layer of the
glas ITO surface versus the TiO2 powder.

As I did not have any ITO layer on the glas, I don´t have a light sensitive
PN layer, but this cell anyway produces 0.3 Volts and at least half a milliamp
shortcircuit current ( only depending on the surface area..)

So maybe this is converting environmental heat to electricity ?

Who knows...
Maybe a cell from graphite-TiO2 on one electrode and
conductive SnO2 on the other electrode will work ?

I will order some SnO2 and some iodide solution now to test this all out.

Regards, Stefan.

[hoptoad]

instead of manganese nitrate it will probably also work with pottasium nitrate which is the oxidizer component in blackpowder and is cheaper and easier to get...I have not read up for what they are using this teflon liquid but probably only to make the surface area bigger..

Thanks for all the added info.

Cheers

[neutrino]

Hi hartiberlin and everyone else!
-Wery much thanks for the interest in this zinc air project!
I (or any ony else back at the "Elbil" forum) will, in due time, try to put forward mor info in english on this great forum, and explain to what level this zinc air cell has achived!

The quest and prototype work for a fully working (and rechargeable) zinc air cell is still persued on a more direct (semi-)commersial base on www.cavac.se (by me only), allthough the work lately has been stucked to miner obstacles (lacking of inspiration and support from associates, and a garage/workshop to work in).

The prototype pictures seen here
http://cavac.se/produkter.html
are the very present state of the project.

There are so many aspects of a battery that it takes much time and efforts to describe and explain every questions (all over again).
For me to manage this I would prefer to just answer straghit forward on direct simple questions, if thats all right?!

I know from later on this forum, how much knowledge and expertise there is amongst the forum member here.
It would be funn, and also probely, that many knew interesting asspects vill appear in this thread about smart solutions about how to best construct a zinc air battery.

And yes, it is very easy to do a zinc-air battery your self!

neutrino / Anders

[hartiberlin]

Hi Anders,
many thanks for the infos.

How much does this cell cost ?

Please post more infos,
so maybe you get many orders for it ?

It would be ideal for LED lighting and other small current applications,
especially also in the 3rd world, where the people have no grid power !

Maybe also some other forum members, who can speal Swedish language
can please help to translate your pages at:

http://indux.se/Projekt%20Zink-Luftbatteri-sida8.html
and the other pages from
http://indux.se/Projekt%20Zink-Luftbatteri-sida1.html
to page 8 on.

Many thanks in advance and looking forward to a great discussion
about selfmade powerful batteries, so we we get more energy independant from
the big companies...

Regards, Stefan.