Ibpointless2 Crystal Cells

[PhiChaser]

Hello all,
Well I discovered a few things today, it has been an interesting past couple days to say the least!
First, that I've been able to charge just Durham's and crushed epsom salt, no additional ingredients. This was recently confirmed on a cell I made two weeks ago before I got my alum in the mail.
Another interesting thing I discovered when trying to load up my 'puck' cell (it has four carbon posts and one twisted bunch of aluminum wire in the middle), was that the voltage I added would only be for that one post, not the other three. Not sure this means anything except the crystalized H2O is only polarized/charged between the center aluminum and that particular carbon post and not the entire mass of electrolyte. For example, I hook the negative battery terminal to the aluminum in the center of the cell, then I connect the positive to one of the carbon posts (terminals). I keep it hooked up a few seconds and it goes up half a volt (in this example). The others don't change (at least they don't change that I can tell, I need more voltmeters heh). So I charge up the next one, only I leave it hooked up longer and the voltage goes up more than the first one, say a volt. I check again and the other two are still low as before. I come back and the first two are up where I charged them (at plus a half volt and plus a volt), not where the other two untouched posts were still sitting at. Anyhow, not really difinitive, although I can say that this 'puck' cell is HARD. 1/3c crushed epsom (not powdered), 1/3c Durhams, 2Tbsp H2O, that's it! (I made this one on the 6th so it's two weeks old today.)
I guess what I'm saying is: Now it is all about HOW MUCH can they hold and for HOW LONG??? What are our size limitations?
I will make some cells with just Durhams for a baseline like I should have done already. Maybe someone can try this too? Also I will try to get one hooked up BEFORE putting in the electrodes to see if a two day training session on the lantern batteries will give the final dried cell a higher, more permanent voltage/current. That would be nice.
I also learned that I can charge multiple cells in parallel, at least four at a time!
With an adjustable DC power supply perhaps the cells could be pulsed at a certain frequency to improve them? Never know. I think more crystal water. More crystals. And make it HARD (gypsum does that job well!).
So, to recap: Durham's and epsom and a little water... Zap with conventional batteries in parallel... Getting easier every day...
I still think that fine silica (sand) will work like the gypsum, maybe better...
Enough of me for a while, I've got a mess to clean up... Ugh...

Happy experimenting,

PC

EDIT: Nice detective work on the browning thing PB!

[triffid]

Once again I assumed something without testing it first.I assumed that black copper oxide on a wire the way I made it would be conductive.It turns out its not conductive.In addition to that my magnesium strips are chewed in half so I have a botched up set of cells.




I did find a USB cord at a garage sale and was fooling around with it to see if it could be used as a electrode by itself as a couple of u-tube videos I find links to said it be could.I only used tap water to stick one end in and used the voltmeter on the other end.The voltmeter probes were too big and with no good connection I could get a little like .025 volts.Without a phone to plug it into to see if it will charge up.I cant really say it can be used as a set of electrodes by itself.triffid


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CljRc4bN8Ts&feature=related

[Peanutbutter29]

Finally got some sleep and am a bit busy today, so far, but have done a couple things.

Try to spit out some things quick.

First, Phi, ya any salt should work (don't necessarily need multiples)  also the numbers I showed with Cu and Mg will follow "comparatively" with other electrodes.  E.g.= Substitute will always show the highest Ma and Lowest V relative to combos.  Whereas Alum will always show highest V...so you can test one solution and get an idea of how the others will mix.

For the Durhams, an your puck.  I'd mentioned that there may be a capacitive effect going on with these, and the puck kinda goes along with that.  Any insulator is a Dielectric and will have a voltage threshold (I suppose here for Triffid, oxides of metals are all insulators).  As long as this threshold is not exceeded, dielectrics can store electrostatic pressure.  Now, I want to say loosely a capacitor here since the Gelcoat Cell would NOT take a charge / current.  That proves (with that cell) it IS an insulator AND that the individual salt particles do not amount to any "connected" plate area.  E.G essentially almost no capacitance. 

  The gypsum does seem to allow some actual ion flow, and thus "should" not be a  complete dielectric to the system.  However your puck does show capacitive effects. You should be able to do the same thing with metal particles and durhams like the puck.

So just something to keep in mind at least.  A total dielectric separation will most likely nix the cell. (like the gel)

I have to run for a bit I'm sure I'm missing more here.....

Quickly,,

My PhiCell's showed about 1.9v each (1 from yesterday and the 4 altered replacements) (gonna consider the gypsum basically the Phicell)

The first from yesterday showed almost no current though.  The other 4 (coated with gelcoat) showed 500ua in a closed loop each.  So the drying did reduce current on the first, though the other 4 hadn't been tested yet.

The superheated cell was down to 940mv (no water still added yet) but still as solid.  Adding 1ml of water again (not enough to drip) and it returns to 1.42V an showed about 2ma output.  (this cell hopefully will not dissolve, but will work off water....time will tell if it's dissolving).

Anyway, the only circuit I have currently  is a solar light (lol) led.  It will run on a AA rechargeable with 1.1v and draw 2ma.  A regular AA of 1.6v drew 8ma, so pretty chunky but less than 1.5v required.

no single cells would lite this (expected). 2 of my new Phicells in series showed 3.8v and .6ma through the meter, but would not light this
My superheated cell would not light this.

But, one of the Phicells AND the Superheated in series and I have some light!!!  (open circuit) 3.2v .....(in operation) 1.65v @ 600ua (.6ma).   I did this because I knew the superheated could supply the larger current, even though it would be limited to the Phicell current. 

I need a joule ringer

Gotta go for a bit
Thanks

[triffid]

I guess at this point I will focus on trying to use dry citric acid in my next cells in place of vineagar.It was a surprise to me that black copper oxide is not conductive.So I will not do that again but I need some food grade silica (dry) that I can add to the epsom salts.I will see what pops up in the products data base I posted a link to.triffid

[triffid]

What do you know?Cat litter contains about 90 percent silica and 10 percent quartz.This is a two for one. http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/household/brands?tbl=brands&id=3007094  triffid