Normal Alkaline batteries can be recharged !

[Tigrotto]

Does someone of you managed to recharge the batteries under the Pyramid ?
I did it and I want to contact people who did the same work in order to improve my technique.
Tigrotto

[not_a_mib]

There are two limitations on recharging alkaline batteries.

The negative electrode is zinc, which becomes zinc oxide as the cell discharges.  Upon recharging, the oxide reduces back to metallic zinc, but it tends to deposit as thin dendrites or "whiskers" that grow out from the electrode surface, rather than plating out in a flat layer.  These dendrites often manage to reach the positive electrode, shorting out the cell after tens or hundreds of recharging cycles.  If the charging current is too high or is continued after all the zinc has been reduced, hydrogen gas may be formed.

The positive electrode contains manganese dioxide, which reduces to a lower oxide as the cell discharges.  Upon recharging, some free oxygen may be released, especially at high currents.  If the amount is small, it dissolves in the electrolyte, then gets reduced back to water at the negative electrode.  If too much is released, it builds up pressure in the cell and makes it burst or leak.  Deep discharge makes the problem worse.

Charging with too much current or for too long could produce both hydrogen and oxygen inside the cell, making an explosion hazard.

There have been some recent developments to work around these problems, such as catalysts for the positive electrode, and chemical or mechanical ways to suppress zinc dendrite growth.

[PaulLowrance]

Last month I reversed the polarity of a dead 9V so that it produced a negative voltage.

You can achieve this by placing a negative voltage on a dead battery.

PL

[pese]

ALKALINE cahrcheable Batteries

@all

no problem about explosion or leackage
if you gibe attention to this:

see also::
http://www.overunity.com/index.php?topic=4312.0

example
load an aa cell wilth maximum 200mA   (12 hours)
and with an maximum voltage  1.875 volts.
(use  voltage limiting diodes  for  one r more batteries ihat you can load in serie)


the4 best result you have if you not unload les than 25 % of capacity)


Loading current approx. 10 % of nominal capacitity of cell) 12 hours.  voltage 1,25 time the normale voltage.(maximum !, obove this, the cell coking ind produce gaz-pressure)

AAA Cells have usually 700mA/h  AA 2000mA/h. Capacity

 
Pese

P.S

I do this now over 10 Years this way.
I use normal battery charger  and modify this my-own.

[Goat]

Hello everyone.
                     Goat, I believe the charger you are talking about is the Buddy L super charger. I remember seeing the infomercial for it in the mid to late 90's.  A quick check on EBay showed a couple of these chargers for sale.

Thank you viper4297 now I know I wasn't dreaming....LOL

I found some information on this charger at http://www.allaboutbatteries.com/Alkaline-charging.html and apparently it was released too soon and had technical problems..."the Buddy-L SuperCharger, announced in 1993. Popular Science magazine named it as one of the 100 top scientific achievements of the year. But it did not live up to expectations. Apparently, the product was launched into production too quickly, and sub-standard operation resulted. Fortunately, the problems did not hurt the batteries. The batteries simply switched off prematurely before charging was complete, and the users had to restart the charging process several times"

At any rate, I did buy the Battery Xtender and it does work as advertised but the trick is not to drain the alkaline batteries below the 70% charge rate and charge them often, works for me  unfortunately getting the kids to do the same is a little tricky   

Regards,
Paul