Crystal Power CeLL by John Hutchison

[AbbaRue]

Maybe my next experiment will be to make 6 cells and connect them in series to make a 3 volt battery.

[ian middleton]

G'day all,

@AbbaRue:  Thanks for the great info on the MAP. I haven't seen it here in Australia so I'll have to go looking.
I'm assuming the map crystals are a greenish colour.

@All: A quick update on the PP+SiG cell. Overnight the current has risen from 60uA up to 118uA with a voltage of 146mV
It's been over 48 hours continuous shunt by the AVO8 on the 300uA range. The shunt resistance is 1.25Kohm.

Keep up the good work guys.

Ian

[AbbaRue]

MAP update.
I left my large MAP cell shorted out since right after I last posted.
Almost immediately after unshorting the cell tonight I got over 800 mV.
I checked the current output, with 10k I got 80 uA which is about right for .8 V
With the 1k resistor I get just over 500uA which is low for the .8V
It appears that shorting the cell has increased it's voltage output.
Very interesting, I would expect the opposite from a chemical battery that's been shorted out for 2 days.

@Ian
The MAP crystals are a tobacco brown colour and have a long thin shape to them.

[Koen1]

@AbbaRue: interesting line of experiments you're doing there
with your MAP. I did a quick check at a local farmers co-op
and found they sell "ammoniumphosphate" fertiliser which seems
to consist mainly (90% or so) of MAP.
However, since this borders organic chemistry and is somewhat
off the beaten path of semiconductor physics, I have not yet figured
out a good combination of materials that we might be able to mix
in with the MAP to get some sort of unidirectional semiconductivity
withing the MAP-based matrix... Guesstimation suggests we might
be able to mix in one or more of those organic semiconductors like
Melanin, with either some variation in the relative charges of these
respective molecules, or perhaps simply the addition of some dopant,
in order to approach an internal semicoinductive rectification effect
inside the MAP-based material. But Like I said, I haven't checked this
chemically at all yet, I'm just offering ideas at this point.

@All: on another note, I have been pondering the new "high temperature"
superconductors like LaOCuAs and LaOFeAs. The basic composition
is very straightforward, but the odd thing is that such materials show
superconductivity up to 150K which is, to put it plainly, just weird.
After all, half of the bulk material consists of Lathanium Oxide, which
is an oxide and therefore a very bad conductor, and Copper- or Iron-
Arsenide, which is obviously a II-V compound, and may be slightly more
conductive than "semi-". (After all, II-VI like FeS can be semiconductive,
and so are III-V like GaN and AlAs. And obviously the V and VI groups
are the nonconductive parts there, so moving the average of the compound
closer to the conducors would probably yield a conductor. Not as good as
the pure II-element, but better than a II-VI compound it would seem...)
The superconductivity effect is not eplained by this. Current models suggest
there is probably phonon exchange taking place between most likely the
copper- respectively iron-atoms which is possible due to the spatial arrangement
and bond- and spin- interactions between these atoms and those around it,
which sort of determine the pattern in which the electrons arrange themselves
over said atoms "orbits" and could cause near perfect phonon conduction.
I have not seen much analysis on this yet, but this is what I gathered so far.
Oh... I just realised some of the above may be too cryptic for some readers... 
Well anyway, where was I headed with this? Oh right: imagine we have such
a material matrix such as these "high temperature" superconductors, which
consists of a LaOFeAs-like structure... And imagine we could introduce a certain
degree of polarisation in this material, so that one side of the material block is
relatively "n" in repect to the other side, which is then obviously relatively "p"...
Imagine we could do this, then we'd have something similar to what in semiconductors
is a diode. But semiconductors depend on ambient temperature for their (semi-)
conductivity, and when the temperature drops below a certain threshold, they stop
being conductors completely. With the superconductor materials, this is the
other way around: they become more conductive as temperature drops, and less
conductive as it rises. So instead of semiconductive room temperature diodes,
these fantasy devices would be superconductive low temperature diodes. Yes,
it would be a bit difficult to use them as they'd need cooling, but on the other hand
they don't have the resistance that semiconductors have so they'd channel even the
smallest charges... However, untill a comprehensive model of these new superconductive
materials is developed it is very difficult to figure out what element mix could or would
form into such a crystalline lettice structure as to allow certain constituent atoms
phonon conduction, as well as the possibility to introduce "dopant" in the matrix.
So untill then this is all highly speculative and mostly just some wild thoughts.

anyone for more wild thoughts?

[AbbaRue]

The following website explains were MAP is mined, and how it is processed.
Also shows a photo of it in form you buy it in.
http://www.agrium.com/products_services/ingredients_for_growth/phosphate/monoammonium_phosphate.jsp

The interesting point is the ore is mixed with gypsum, here is a quote from the sit:
"High quality phosphate ore is mined in an open pit and processed into a fine powdered rock. The rock is reacted with water and sulphuric acid to produce a slurry of phosphoric acid and gypsum solids. The gypsum is filtered from the slurry, and the phosphoric acid is increasingly concentrated for various grades and uses."

So the MAP already has some of the qualities of the Hutchison Cell when it is mined.


The cell gives me 550 mV at 500uA across a 1k resistor so I hope I can run something with 5 or 6 connected in series.
I bought some more stainless steel pans and now I just need to grow some more MAP crystals.