This is a super simple homemade rechargeable battery that uses stainless steel pan scrubbers with Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) in plain tap water. The cell…
This is a super simple homemade rechargeable battery that uses stainless steel pan scrubbers with Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) in plain tap water. The cell…
the best inventions are those discovered unintentionally.
Nice!
Be careful with that mixture my friend. I did some eletrolysis with low grade stainless, and the electrolyte is changed to a VERY toxic substance. Just be wise about how you dispose of he electrolyte. Great results.
Well done Lid!
The question is, if this is just another double layer supercap effect or if the Mg and SO4 ions are really stored inside the stainless steel metal atomic mesh ?
Have you compared it to using just 2 graphite rods for this instead of the scrubber electrodes? Normally graphite will hold the charge longer ..
It pushes more current than i would have expected 🙂 Thanks for sharing. I remember edsworkshop – when he first started – he was using the cheap steel wool scrubbers (in a NiFe bat exp.) stated that they were very high iron content (which kind of explains why they rust in like 24h). BTW – if you ever want some nickel… I have many lbs. of 99.9 pct. (old) CDN nickels and can mail you some. Cheers
put a magnet to ıt to see ıf ıts staınless or just zınc galvanızed steel….. ı have been usıng the cheap zınc wool wıth bıckel ın a crystal solutıon wıth over a volt per lıttle cell and 100 mA
NO. This is not zinc galvanized steel. It is stainless steel. I have used the galvanized steel scrubbers before and I know the difference. These scrubbers ARE magnetic stainless steel. This is not a galvanic cell like you describe. Thanks for the comment though and people should look carefully at the scrubber package to see if it says “stainlees steel”. The galvanized ones look very similar.
Whats the amps…tnx keep up great work
Thanks Mart. At least this does not have any lead in it. I checked the pH this morning and it was about neutral (shock!!). I was very surprised. The electrolyte has a slight brown tint indicating a iron oxide. I don’t think that this stuff is very dangerous but I’m not going to water my plants with it or mix it with my ice tea.
Yes I was kinda surprised at the amperage also but it isn’t anywhere near what I was getting with the Lead / Alum / Litharge cells. Those are still the most powerful cells that I have made so far.
I made a cell using the carbon rods out of a D cell battery and it worked fine. It is hard to tell which is better because of the size difference. I’m pretty sure that the SO4 is envolved in this cell and that this is not just a type of supercap. It might be a combination thing —and that is fine by me as long as it works. There might also be a strange redox reaction happening with the iron in the metal. Don’t know.
This puts out about 60 mA showing up with a dead short on that cheap meter. It drops off pretty quick. There is not much energy density on this cell. My lead- alum- lead oxide cells are far better rechargeables. This was just a test to see just how simple you could go and still get some results.
my copper n zınc wıth crystal solutıon gave 1.12 volts wıth 40mA wıth dead short and would quıcfkly recover to 1 volt ın couple seconds but amps were slowwww. my zınc n nıckel wıth same alum epsom sılıca solutıon held the amps SOLID but the volts were slow to recoverç the nıckel zınc also had over 60ma . cells are10cm x 10cm x 1mm and are VERY lıght…see ıf you get same results wıth the nıckel zınc and alum epsom solutıon…very curıous ıf mıne ıs just a fluke….ı never trıed chargıng yet
If a guy was to tear down a UPS SLA battery, and then convert to flooded Alum, would you advise taking it as close to 0V, first? thanks Lid.
when you break down compounds you release electricity. the elec is held by solution. your build back up is on going break down
Wow, that was amazing … Nice work …
That is a question for John Bedini but I would guess no.
I suspect that if copper and galvanized (zinc) steel scrubbers were separated by a mix of baked rochelle/epsom, it would make a good self-charging dry crystal cell. Kudos for taking advantage of the surface area of these scrubbers. Graphite foam and activated charcoal could have similar effects with surface area. Are you only working on rechargeable super caps now? I like the idea of self-charging crystal cells that are used as supercaps and amplify the energy through pulsed charge and discharge
Heya Lidmotor, I went to replicate this experiment, and apparently I forgot to review what you had done, because I used alum instead LOL. but check it out, anyway, I uploaded a quick video… worked not too bad at all!
I’m glad that you made one with Alum and it worked. I will try that.
Thanks, I enjoyed your project, and OUbrads video too!. I am uploading another “concept” that I thought of, for these batteries, right now. I think it will help.
Nice job, I will be adapting this concept into a solid cell batt using mg-o2 and steel / alumi plates, wish me luck. Thinking of getting the mg ions on an oil or dry electrolyte will be the win.