I was reading up recently how batteries work and had a basic idea of how to make a homemade one similar to this but I was struggling to envision how to put everything together. This video helped wrap all that up together for me. Thanks so much for this video it helped a ton!
You have so many great ideas my friend, I dare say you are an academic, perhaps a chemistry teacher but you are so practical, the world and proletarians like me need people like you to make our future autonomous.
Boss, tell them that Zinc sulfate is more soluble in ethylene glycol. When you construct a cell using that as your electrolyte and you use zinc foil, the paper claims after 10,000 cycles the capacity is still 99%. It's what I call the forever battery. I'm glad to see you found out about the Zinc Iodide battery.
Rob's been producing quality, hands on, battery chemistry explanation and exploration videos for YEARS! Like 7 or 8 years I think. his back catalog of videos and topics would make your head spin!
@@frankdelucey2137 Thank you. He certainly seems a great guy with so many skills & so much knowledge. I doubt I will be trying any of it myself but it is sure interesting to know.
Dear Robert I would like to share an idea, it has nothing to do with this video but I find it interesting, a few days ago I saw a video of what happened in a jungle when the sections of a bamboo plant were cut, and how pure and clean water emanated from each of the cavities of the bamboo sections and how it was stored there, and how these sections behaved as natural osmotic membranes and taking into account the high resistance of bamboo, it seemed to me that this could have interesting applications such as chemical leaching of some contaminated water or use as separators in batteries, or filters to desalinate water, more ecological and economical and easy to build I leave that idea there in case it may seem interesting to you
There are heaps of simple batteries to make. I made a 0.7v cell from copper wire and sheet iron. It will light an LED and is rechargeable. You can use heaps of different electrolytes in it, works quite well with urine.
Using a edison battery while also collecting hydrogen and oxygen when overcharge happens is the best battery solution for off grid solutions. Then mobile batteries could be a different battery type preferably aluminum air batteries that can be recycled at home
I imagine they already could be user recyclable. But where's the profit in that? It seems to me that our current economy is supported entirely by planned obsolescence, at whatever cost. You can't put the onus & responsibility on the consumer for buying it, nor will the manufacturer accept any for producing it. Less than ideal IMO.
@@reeferbeleafer9912 in a world where money is made from thin air leveraged against the chattle through bondage at birth, anything is possible but freedom
@@brettmoore3194 we can complain you realise. There is an engineering solution available that would save the majority of humanity - from at the very least the idiotic oil war. I just can't find anyone who really wants to, as they hardly understand the problem. The problem is of course hidden knowledge. The science of the human mind has advanced to the extent that human nature can be predicted. Our structures use these principles against us for not being organised enough to object. The lone voice of the whistle-blower blower is supported in principle but as all the money of society is controlled through structures designed to manipulate human will. There is no money to pursue the concern and the money suggests the brave individual is a grifter. Anyway I share your feelings, if you can find a few more folk that understand the science. I really don't know how much science you need to read the IPCC report. Our intention to be greedy, selfish but full of good intentions is actually the motivation for the suicide occurring. Our desire to selfishly face no bad consequences for our actions by deferring to those that pay us means all leaders are ignorent of this deception - instead trusting to the corporate protection of reasonable doubt. If there is reasonable doubt it suggests unreasonable profiteering at work. The climate data is very carefully considered information. It might be the best scientific data humanity has ever held. It is really clear. Global war is not even on the top 100 ideas to fight these issues. With a healthy economy it might feature but as we have printed money to run everything at the ragged edge. It looks a bit more like protection money paid to the military by those responsible for the impending catastrophic events. I bet they wished we all went back to believing the earth was flat so they could blame the devil. Data suggests our leaders are killing us and we all know it we just wish it was not true.
@@robertstewart6099 know your enemy, ever heard of the reformation. Why do the Swiss guard protect the vatican? is the bank of international settlements also in Switzerland? Why is everyone born into BONDage?
@@brettmoore3194 Well put but perhaps as modern and capable citizens we had ought to consider ways in which to oppose such a travesty He who trades his freedom for security deserves, and shall receive, neither.
Super cool! Thanks for sharing this Robert. Two questions I have . What is the conducive plastic do? Is it important or can you just use copper. And also how scalable is this? ( Can one make a large enough battery this way that can power a backup power system of 24V 100a/h) What do you think?
if I am following you, some thing I could build where I can build it to what I need, that what I am also interested, I just reading through the comments looking for info, ideas anything Thanx🙏☺️🖖
Dang it! You make these videos faster than I can keep up! I'm not complaining. So, I am looking for a battery idea that is fairly simple and uses inexpensive materials. I have a large footprint, like a small parking lot, so space is not as much of an issue. I have looked at the molten metal ideas but am wondering if you are aware of any other groovy ideas I may not have heard of. Things an old farmer might be able to manage. Thanks, and please continue with your videos. I absolutely love them!
Think zinc galvanized nails! And ask your self do you need a battery like a crystal battery can go on and on! And it's cost a effort and a smile plus some pennies! a coppercoin and a nail! and something little more. Awesome Thanks Rob!
Maybe one of your old tricks for lowering the internal resistance would do great also in this case, add a bit of sodium sulphate to the solution. I think the battery you showed us with the most potencial in terms of versatility and ease of construction is the zinc-bromine one.
What we need is a rechargeable super capacitor, made with non-toxic materials. And materials that are cheap and readily available. I'm attempting to put together a project where I can show anybody how to put one together. I'm not a chemist by any stretch of the imagination Plus I'm very short of time and money so this may take some time. These would be useful for our home solar generators. Where size and weight are not important. But lifespan, affordability, and non-toxicity, are important.
@@captainnemo6655 I did not see a video series as I described. I found the aluminum passivation video intriguing. However after investing time and money into doing it I found expensive hard to come by ingredients were left out of the video.
Thank you Rob! These ideas can save you in a pinch... A question for you and an idea for the store, can you put together an Emergency survival Battery kit for sale? A lot of outdoors stores and survival stores do not have ANY of this stuff required to make simple primitive primary batteries in a survival situation. Like for my purposes a kit would be just the wires, the carbon and zinc mesh, the salty iodine and a foldable pouch or maybe all that stuff plus something like a few rods of carbon and zinc plus some hollow sections of pipe for other battery types like earth and mud batteries with a simple diagram on how to stick em together. This would be the perfect emergency battery survival kit for the outdoors types like me. A ready to go pouch ready to go just in case anything happens. For home emergency kits it would be an awesome addition to have too. Just a thought, seeing as how places like in California there will be a mega flood and natural disasters are getting more and more brutal elsewhere on the world. THANK YOU ROB AND LUKE!!
@@JehuMcSpooran Hydroelectric Paper Fuel Cells... Yes!!!! I am aware of these... And their full potential is in AEROponic systems, that folks have not tapped into yet.... But I am glad you see what I mean? A Hydroelectric Fuel Cell kit would not take up much space in an emergency kit either! Another good idea.
I love these DIY battery ideas. I want to try one made from aluminum and copper. The fellow who I saw made his with a separator made from paper towels with a PVA glue coating on one side. Supposedly, this protects the copper from degradation, though the aluminum eventually has to be replaced. I produce mountains of empty soda cans each year, so any battery I could make with aluminum would be great since I have that material abundantly available.
If aluminum is your wish.... Have you ever seen the souvenir penny machines? The ones that flatten and stretch out the coin? Those do something funny by unintended consequence... Each pressed penny is a cathode plate. If you sandwich some cardboard or paper soaked in electrolyte and add a thin sheet of aluminum on top, then make a repeating stack about 9 coins high... You get a copper aluminum coin battery.
hi in the car batteries i think there are pb plates so negative an positive poles both have the pb core but cover materials over the pb plates are different if this hypothesis is correct what material are being used as a coverage material on positive and negative plates for the car batteries
If you filled a domestic oil tank up with this fluid and modified accordingly, using solar panels on the top of the tank for recharging, what would be the end result of this? power a house?
Very cool! If an emptied out 12v battery case was rebuild with this chemistry, is the energy density close to lead acid by relative volume? It's obviously going to be much lighter than lead wich is neat!
Zink has a strong tendency to form dendrites that are easilly disturbed and may break off. So if you charge it and the dendrites break off. The energy put into playing the zink that falls off is lost and unavailable to you. You might like to watch a few youtube channels on zink iodide. electrolysis.
@@kreynolds1123 You seem to have some knowledge about this but the long term dendrite issue isn't really answering the questions you're replying to. Or perhaps it is and you care to elaborate?
@@JJFX- during charging, it takes energy to plate the zink. If the fragile zing dendrites breaks it's no longer conducts electricity and the energy stored in the plated zink that's no longer part of the circuit becomes unavailable. It will eventually mix with the iodine again which could be replated, so the battery could be recharged many times. But I doubt the usefulness of trying to replace automotive lead acid batteries given the fragility. Maybe a gell electrolyte might work better.
@@JJFX- for example, an all liquid molten salt battery. Its made with liquid metal sodium and zink electrodes and a molten salt electrolyte. The electrodes being molten dont suffer dendrites.
@@kreynolds1123 That makes sense, thanks for the explanation. I think there's simply a misinterpretation of the original question asking about energy density differences, not the feasibility of replacing lead-acid technology with this. To put it simply... assuming optimum performance is achieved and degradation isn't a factor, would this chemistry even be a potential benefit over lead-acid (aside from weight) in the same package?
Question for you, Rob. Could you fill a plastic(or other material like ceramic) water tank with that solution and make a HUGE rechargeable battery? If yes, what sort of power do you think it might be capable of producing?
He actually already did a video talking about this and battery densities vs how much you can get out of a huge one. It's a prior video on easy batteries.
Use to make penny batteries all the time. New penny rubbed on the sidewalk till the copper coating is removed and zinc is showing, put cardboard on zinc penny side and normal penny on top. Get cardboard wet with salty water and u get small amount of power. Stack a bunch in series and you can light up a led or 2. Also pee will work as the liquid.......
@@manoo422 after I think 1983 they stopped making pennies out of pure copper and now they are zinc with a copper plating..... It's the very first form of inflation, adding junk metal to the coins to devalue the currency, now they just hit a button on a computer or print paper. Lol Try it, u might be surprised how little copper is on a penny and how easy it is to wear off.
@@manoo422 Pennies changed radically after 1982 - they went from being 97.5 percent copper to 97.5 percent zinc. So, most pocket change pennies are zinc with a thin coating of copper = rub the copper off and you have a zinc disc.
@@manoo422 Wow - UK still has a "penny" too that is worth less in metal value than the US version and is useless for making zinc discs?! What's next for the humble penny - plastic coins?
What if you created a number of 'spines' of zinc facing downwards into a fish tank, a bunch of copper 'spines' coming up off of the bottom of the tank, fill it with water, iodine and potassium iodide, and then made it so the zinc spines could be raised and lowered into the tank? Would you get higher voltage and more amps or would the voltage stay the same just with increased amperage? Is it 1.2V per piece of zinc? Maybe use solid wires for the spines? Make 'em easy to replace as they corrode out?
I believe the voltage is always going to be 1.2 per cell, as the voltage difference is directly related to the metals fixed position relative to each other on the galvanic table.
Maybe you could use a copper pipe, with a zinc rod inside it ? you can get 300mm zinc rods on ebay quite cheap. ps, also some plumbers purchase bulk large magnesium sacrificial anodes for the larger water tanks and just cut the lower portion off to fit them in smaller tanks, so you might find these lower section of sacrificial anodes (minus the screw holder) available as scrap at a low cost. I also wander if you made a screw thread lifting/extracting mechanism; via an Arduino, to halt the reaction and/or reduce the current and controlling the charging by partially removing the zinc rods to produce only a specific current that you are needing, e.g feeding another battery or super capacitor bank to run power
@@rl3898 Yes, thanks you are correct, I edited my original post where I muxed ip boat and hot water sacrificial anodes. I left the reference to hot water magnesium anodes in case someone found it a useful source of magnesium. Zinc rods are cheaply avail on eBay etc.
Simple more often then not gets over looked because its not flashy or sexy but even a Tesla power wall is just a bunch of little batteries in box that costs a pretty penny.
This is pretty much just a variation of the zinc bromide battery, as iodine is another halide. Higher voltage, though, and iodine seems safer than bromine.
Might be not that easy to source pure iodine. You can make it even easier if you use just some iodine povidon based desinfection (for example betadine, I tried with Czech one called "Jodisol"). A bit less effective in the sense of power, but much more easier in the sense of sourcing it. And now.. you might start to think about improvements.. like.. e.g. boil some excessive alcohol or water from the desinfection before using in the battery.
I have an idea. A self lit lamp. A bright, efficient led lightbulb, on a tall stand, that is itself a large zamboni pile. If i could make one thats like 4 or 5 inches wide and 5 or 6 feet tall, how long could it power a normal household led bulb? Then I remembered the bagdad battery used for ancient electroplating, and remembered the theory that one 6ft tall couldve produced like 50 volts.
You can make a rechargeable one all you need it Iron mesh some pincle lead or grafight paper and tinfoil and saltwater with baking soda or powder but it works best with powder
Might be crazy simple, where do we get a bottle of iodine from though? Not being a killjoy, positively the opposite, but the last time I saw a bottle was in high school chemistry, and seriously, just looked on ebay, nothing...... Rob, any help?
You can buy little ones at Smith’s and stuff, but the gov is making it really hard to get in any decent quantities because people are using it to make the street drug meth.
Iodine containing salt would do just as well for an electrolyte mix... Iodine salt is still EVERYWHERE... Can't get salt in your area? No problem. Iodine grows on sea weed. Get enough seaweed and you can refine it to pure iodine by burning away the seaweed portion.
Depends where you reside on the planet . Primenon specialist supplies for "chemicals" are pottery/ceramics craft suppliies, then pool and fertiliser suppliers next . For stuff you can't get via this route , then specialist supplies might have to be the option but never cheap . Some of us may have souvenired samples from our school n university days . Off course you'll know that you gotta check ebay and others regularly till stuff comes up .
@@michaelcorbidge7914 did you also know Pennies and other bottom of the barrel marks of currency are already mixed with copper and zinc? Just need to expose the surfaces of these.
Stuck in the woods with a dead phone. What could you build a temporary battery from? You can always make several to up the current. Urine and 2 different metals? Plane crash. What scrap could you find to build a battery out of? What type of things camping that you might have to make a battery? Food and metals from pots or frame packs. wild berries acidic enough?
Wood ash can be used for its significant amount of potasium oxide that when mixed with water will make potasium hydroxide. Then if you can use nickle and iron for a 1.2v Edison battery probably have to charge it, but they are known to be tolerant of overcharging. Iron is the negative plate and nickle is the positive plate. At 1.2v per cell, 5 cells in serries should give you a voltage of 6 volts to charge your cellphone.
Imagine if Les Strauss from Survivor Man teamed up with Rob(or Luke) and did a series on energy generation out in survival situations? That would be sooo cool!
One might try a vinegar battery with galvanized nailes and copper. One can make wood vinegar by the destructive distillation of wood while making charcoal.
Hi, thanks for the videos.🙂I had a look at your books via the lnk in your description. Before I buy... are they meant as the step-by-step guide for the projects in your videos like this one?... In pretty much all of your videos you go too fast for me to understand certain points of how/what you are doing - as an ordinary (yet fairly handy) person. Don't mind paying for information(s) just unclear what is offered.
Love your videos. Thank you. Could you make a more detailed one that we can use, maybe with a bit more DIY work too to improve performance? What would be, say, possible with a 5,10 or 20L bucket, could you hit a 12-13Volt which would be useful for more people to use with common available lights and fans. And aH.. how much would a 10L bucket give? Can you make a 12v 100aH battery in a bucket? Your experiment is very informative but at the same time, i didnt learn anything as there was not test or measuring. :)
mate there is no more detail needed - just make a few and link them up in series - bingo. And there was no need for test or measure I just copied what was in the research - if you want ore detail - have a read at google scholar
Hello. It’s not just plastic, it’s conductive plastic, wich provides a big area, the copper is good conductor of electricity, Rob showed in previous videos how to make it, I suggest you watch his 1600 previous videos, you will know everything. :-)
I would love to see what would happen if you strung all of those simple batteries together, say perhaps 20 of them together and then see if you can drive something substantial
Excellent battery there Governor but how long will it last before you have to scrap it and start over approximately of course when it lasts a long time years or a month or two
Copper mesh with plastic fabric wrapped around it. You add water and zinc and iodine? It would be great if you would always add to the comment thread what you use and in what ratio. British English is not always open to everyone. Really hard to read what is meant sometimes. With all due respect, different substances can have a similar name. If you tell what and how, many home chemists will be saved from bad consequences. This is just my five cents of thoughts.
Measure how much electric output with a multimeter, then use a battery voltage regulator (i.e. salvage from a lithium battery by snipping the nickel connections)so you don't fry the circuitry of the device you are powering or charging. Can anyone tell me a reading of the raw lithium battery capacity when fully charged? Take a reading after removing the battery power limiter circuitry.
Easy to make? I have the copper and the zinc, pure H2o, a beaker. But no IODINE (or that plastic mesh, but I may have something like that in cotton). Is there something I have in my house I can put in there? (we all do have the standard acid in house, I even have NaOH for cleaning the drainage pipes). I think the word easy is with respect to your knowledge and your supplies, however we do things from home. And I know you would like us to try for ourselves, how ever I don't like to play with chemicals at all. As in 'play'. I am someone who wants to know what he is doing (not experiment with things he does not know enough of). Fair enough?
Using a carbon rod salvaged from a battery or a piece of graphite instead of the copper mesh/plastic electrode would work as well. It just has to be conductive and chemically inert.
![Oscar Maydon x Fuerza Regida - Tu Boda [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_ymicn0_GYc/mqdefault.jpg)
I was reading up recently how batteries work and had a basic idea of how to make a homemade one similar to this but I was struggling to envision how to put everything together. This video helped wrap all that up together for me. Thanks so much for this video it helped a ton!
You have so many great ideas my friend, I dare say you are an academic, perhaps a chemistry teacher but you are so practical, the world and proletarians like me need people like you to make our future autonomous.
wow - cheers mate
Boss, tell them that Zinc sulfate is more soluble in ethylene glycol. When you construct a cell using that as your electrolyte and you use zinc foil, the paper claims after 10,000 cycles the capacity is still 99%. It's what I call the forever battery. I'm glad to see you found out about the Zinc Iodide battery.
This is awesome, thank you for exposing the concepts so well and connecting them together so fluently! Excellent learning tool!
Another super useful device for the apocalypse. Thanks Rob :)
Indeed!
Great project! 👏
A rechargeable battery in three easy steps
Indeed! His self charging battery videos are awesome! Did you see the other ones he made?
@@captainnemo6655 I did, mate. Plain awesome 🎉
What an interesting battery 🔋 construction
So simple 🤓
He has many batteries like this with constructions based on plain paper all the way to plain earth.
Your videos remind me not to be dumb. Isn't thinking such a wonderful think. Thanks Rob.
Does the plastic sleeve stop the copper eroding and how conductive is it in comparison to copper ?
Thank you for your example of the most simple battery to make. You are amazing. I am pleased that I recently discovered your channel.
Rob's been producing quality, hands on, battery chemistry explanation and exploration videos for YEARS! Like 7 or 8 years I think. his back catalog of videos and topics would make your head spin!
Rob is a great guy. You will learn a lot from him. 99% of the stuff he dose in his videos you can do at home with just a little patience and time.
@@frankdelucey2137 Thank you. He certainly seems a great guy with so many skills & so much knowledge. I doubt I will be trying any of it myself but it is sure interesting to know.
@@WileHeCoyote Thank you. I am sure it would make my head spin in amazement. What a skill set to have
Dear Robert
I would like to share an idea, it has nothing to do with this video but I find it interesting, a few days ago I saw a video of what happened in a jungle when the sections of a bamboo plant were cut, and how pure and clean water emanated from each of the cavities of the bamboo sections and how it was stored there, and how these sections behaved as natural osmotic membranes
and taking into account the high resistance of bamboo, it seemed to me that this could have interesting applications such as chemical leaching of some contaminated water or use as separators in batteries, or filters to desalinate water, more ecological and economical and easy to build
I leave that idea there in case it may seem interesting to you
Interesting 🤔
The professor used coconut shells.
Can you tell me more about it
I thought about zinc iodine batteries some time ago. Thankyou for doing this. Slowing down self discharge you may try pva or hydrogels.
Thank you, for this info!
Reminds me I made one in grade three..
I had to us Iodine salt, copper and zinc!
However, I never made a potato battery..
There are heaps of simple batteries to make. I made a 0.7v cell from copper wire and sheet iron. It will light an LED and is rechargeable. You can use heaps of different electrolytes in it, works quite well with urine.
Water world battery.
yes there are
Hey Rob it's just like me. Simple.
Great stuff.
These videos deserver so much more.
How about a solar/wind powered diy desalination system
Using a edison battery while also collecting hydrogen and oxygen when overcharge happens is the best battery solution for off grid solutions. Then mobile batteries could be a different battery type preferably aluminum air batteries that can be recycled at home
I imagine they already could be user recyclable. But where's the profit in that?
It seems to me that our current economy is supported entirely by planned obsolescence, at whatever cost.
You can't put the onus & responsibility on the consumer for buying it, nor will the manufacturer accept any for producing it.
Less than ideal IMO.
@@reeferbeleafer9912 in a world where money is made from thin air leveraged against the chattle through bondage at birth, anything is possible but freedom
@@brettmoore3194 we can complain you realise. There is an engineering solution available that would save the majority of humanity - from at the very least the idiotic oil war. I just can't find anyone who really wants to, as they hardly understand the problem.
The problem is of course hidden knowledge. The science of the human mind has advanced to the extent that human nature can be predicted. Our structures use these principles against us for not being organised enough to object. The lone voice of the whistle-blower blower is supported in principle but as all the money of society is controlled through structures designed to manipulate human will. There is no money to pursue the concern and the money suggests the brave individual is a grifter.
Anyway I share your feelings, if you can find a few more folk that understand the science. I really don't know how much science you need to read the IPCC report. Our intention to be greedy, selfish but full of good intentions is actually the motivation for the suicide occurring. Our desire to selfishly face no bad consequences for our actions by deferring to those that pay us means all leaders are ignorent of this deception - instead trusting to the corporate protection of reasonable doubt. If there is reasonable doubt it suggests unreasonable profiteering at work.
The climate data is very carefully considered information. It might be the best scientific data humanity has ever held. It is really clear. Global war is not even on the top 100 ideas to fight these issues. With a healthy economy it might feature but as we have printed money to run everything at the ragged edge. It looks a bit more like protection money paid to the military by those responsible for the impending catastrophic events.
I bet they wished we all went back to believing the earth was flat so they could blame the devil. Data suggests our leaders are killing us and we all know it we just wish it was not true.
@@robertstewart6099 know your enemy, ever heard of the reformation. Why do the Swiss guard protect the vatican? is the bank of international settlements also in Switzerland? Why is everyone born into BONDage?
@@brettmoore3194 Well put but perhaps as modern and capable citizens we had ought to consider ways in which to oppose such a travesty
He who trades his freedom for security deserves, and shall receive, neither.
Super cool! Thanks for sharing this Robert. Two questions I have . What is the conducive plastic do? Is it important or can you just use copper.
And also how scalable is this?
( Can one make a large enough battery this way that can power a backup power system of 24V 100a/h) What do you think?
it protects the copper from iodine corrosion mate - and yeah it is scalable
if I am following you, some thing I could build where I can build it to what I need, that what I am also interested, I just reading through the comments looking for info, ideas anything Thanx🙏☺️🖖
Perfect battery we will need during the great reset
Dang it! You make these videos faster than I can keep up! I'm not complaining.
So, I am looking for a battery idea that is fairly simple and uses inexpensive materials. I have a large footprint, like a small parking lot, so space is not as much of an issue. I have looked at the molten metal ideas but am wondering if you are aware of any other groovy ideas I may not have heard of. Things an old farmer might be able to manage. Thanks, and please continue with your videos. I absolutely love them!
That's pretty cool.
Thank You Robert, most enjoyable!!!!
cheers mate
What kind of plastic are you lining the copper mesh with?
Velostat, also known as Linqstat
Interesting! How long will it last? 1 year, 20 years?
Ahh, back to batteries, my original passion.
awesome
Think zinc galvanized nails! And ask your self do you need a battery like a crystal battery can go on and on! And it's cost a effort and a smile plus some pennies! a coppercoin and a nail! and something little more. Awesome Thanks Rob!
In a potato this makes a very good battery which is perfectly capable of powering an led for reading.
You say super easy to make but I didn't see you explain the conductive plastic. Is it needed? Where do we it from?
All good questions... To which he already made videos on. Did you see those other videos?
Maybe one of your old tricks for lowering the internal resistance would do great also in this case, add a bit of sodium sulphate to the solution. I think the battery you showed us with the most potencial in terms of versatility and ease of construction is the zinc-bromine one.
yeah that would work - nice add mate cheers
Outstanding!! Thank you
Iron-air batteries are what have me excited. Any chance you can show me how to make one? ;)
sure
What we need is a rechargeable super capacitor, made with non-toxic materials. And materials that are cheap and readily available. I'm attempting to put together a project where I can show anybody how to put one together. I'm not a chemist by any stretch of the imagination Plus I'm very short of time and money so this may take some time. These would be useful for our home solar generators. Where size and weight are not important. But lifespan, affordability, and non-toxicity, are important.
He actually already had videos on each of these topics already. Have you seen them?
@@captainnemo6655 I did not see a video series as I described. I found the aluminum passivation video intriguing. However after investing time and money into doing it I found expensive hard to come by ingredients were left out of the video.
Thank you Rob! These ideas can save you in a pinch... A question for you and an idea for the store, can you put together an Emergency survival Battery kit for sale? A lot of outdoors stores and survival stores do not have ANY of this stuff required to make simple primitive primary batteries in a survival situation. Like for my purposes a kit would be just the wires, the carbon and zinc mesh, the salty iodine and a foldable pouch or maybe all that stuff plus something like a few rods of carbon and zinc plus some hollow sections of pipe for other battery types like earth and mud batteries with a simple diagram on how to stick em together. This would be the perfect emergency battery survival kit for the outdoors types like me. A ready to go pouch ready to go just in case anything happens. For home emergency kits it would be an awesome addition to have too. Just a thought, seeing as how places like in California there will be a mega flood and natural disasters are getting more and more brutal elsewhere on the world. THANK YOU ROB AND LUKE!!
There was a paper based one he made a little while ago. Wet the paper and off you go.
@@JehuMcSpooran Hydroelectric Paper Fuel Cells... Yes!!!! I am aware of these... And their full potential is in AEROponic systems, that folks have not tapped into yet.... But I am glad you see what I mean? A Hydroelectric Fuel Cell kit would not take up much space in an emergency kit either! Another good idea.
I love these DIY battery ideas. I want to try one made from aluminum and copper. The fellow who I saw made his with a separator made from paper towels with a PVA glue coating on one side. Supposedly, this protects the copper from degradation, though the aluminum eventually has to be replaced. I produce mountains of empty soda cans each year, so any battery I could make with aluminum would be great since I have that material abundantly available.
If aluminum is your wish.... Have you ever seen the souvenir penny machines? The ones that flatten and stretch out the coin? Those do something funny by unintended consequence... Each pressed penny is a cathode plate. If you sandwich some cardboard or paper soaked in electrolyte and add a thin sheet of aluminum on top, then make a repeating stack about 9 coins high... You get a copper aluminum coin battery.
If you can find copper pennies
@@countrygun8416 come to las vegas, Nevada... they are still ALL OVER THE PLACE over here.
Awesome little battery
How big could you scale it up
a swimming pool?🧐
Hi. Don't know if anyone has already asked, but why the cover over the copper ?
hi in the car batteries i think there are pb plates so negative an positive poles both have the pb core
but cover materials over the pb plates are different if this hypothesis is correct what material are being used as a coverage material on positive and negative plates for the car batteries
I wonder how many charge / discharge cycles are possible?
Very nice! What is the reason/purpose of the plastic mesh over the copper?
It acts as a separator for the electrolyte.
What was the concentration of the iodine which you used?
Yes because we all have copper mesh and conductive plastic laying around. Lets try for simpler.
can i use stranded copper wire(hammered falt?) out of a cable rather than mesh? i have to make this out of trash. an i have that on hand
If you filled a domestic oil tank up with this fluid and modified accordingly, using solar panels on the top of the tank for recharging, what would be the end result of this? power a house?
Ah yes the 55 gallon drum battery with only a coil of coper tubing as anode AND cathode. one of my favorite vids to hate on. lol
Can I use sulphuric acid instead of iodine and zinc
would salt and water or sodium hydroxide work better ?
Hi this might make a nice flow battery.
Very cool! If an emptied out 12v battery case was rebuild with this chemistry, is the energy density close to lead acid by relative volume? It's obviously going to be much lighter than lead wich is neat!
Zink has a strong tendency to form dendrites that are easilly disturbed and may break off. So if you charge it and the dendrites break off. The energy put into playing the zink that falls off is lost and unavailable to you. You might like to watch a few youtube channels on zink iodide. electrolysis.
@@kreynolds1123 You seem to have some knowledge about this but the long term dendrite issue isn't really answering the questions you're replying to. Or perhaps it is and you care to elaborate?
@@JJFX- during charging, it takes energy to plate the zink. If the fragile zing dendrites breaks it's no longer conducts electricity and the energy stored in the plated zink that's no longer part of the circuit becomes unavailable. It will eventually mix with the iodine again which could be replated, so the battery could be recharged many times. But I doubt the usefulness of trying to replace automotive lead acid batteries given the fragility. Maybe a gell electrolyte might work better.
@@JJFX- for example, an all liquid molten salt battery. Its made with liquid metal sodium and zink electrodes and a molten salt electrolyte. The electrodes being molten dont suffer dendrites.
@@kreynolds1123 That makes sense, thanks for the explanation. I think there's simply a misinterpretation of the original question asking about energy density differences, not the feasibility of replacing lead-acid technology with this.
To put it simply... assuming optimum performance is achieved and degradation isn't a factor, would this chemistry even be a potential benefit over lead-acid (aside from weight) in the same package?
You can get some Zoinc from the casing of a throw-away AA alkaline battery.
Question for you, Rob. Could you fill a plastic(or other material like ceramic) water tank with that solution and make a HUGE rechargeable battery? If yes, what sort of power do you think it might be capable of producing?
He actually already did a video talking about this and battery densities vs how much you can get out of a huge one. It's a prior video on easy batteries.
Great question!
@@captainnemo6655
Thank you 🕊️
This is a simple cell. It will only produce 2 volts , no matter how large.
@@countrygun8416 Rob does have a video specific on making huge rechargable batteries... Did you see those videos?
Use to make penny batteries all the time. New penny rubbed on the sidewalk till the copper coating is removed and zinc is showing, put cardboard on zinc penny side and normal penny on top. Get cardboard wet with salty water and u get small amount of power.
Stack a bunch in series and you can light up a led or 2.
Also pee will work as the liquid.......
@@manoo422 after I think 1983 they stopped making pennies out of pure copper and now they are zinc with a copper plating.....
It's the very first form of inflation, adding junk metal to the coins to devalue the currency, now they just hit a button on a computer or print paper. Lol
Try it, u might be surprised how little copper is on a penny and how easy it is to wear off.
@@manoo422 Pennies changed radically after 1982 - they went from being 97.5 percent copper to 97.5 percent zinc. So, most pocket change pennies are zinc with a thin coating of copper = rub the copper off and you have a zinc disc.
@@rodciferri9626 sad when the amount of copper in a 1980 penny is worth more then the penny itself....
@@manoo422 Wow - UK still has a "penny" too that is worth less in metal value than the US version and is useless for making zinc discs?! What's next for the humble penny - plastic coins?
What if you created a number of 'spines' of zinc facing downwards into a fish tank, a bunch of copper 'spines' coming up off of the bottom of the tank, fill it with water, iodine and potassium iodide, and then made it so the zinc spines could be raised and lowered into the tank? Would you get higher voltage and more amps or would the voltage stay the same just with increased amperage? Is it 1.2V per piece of zinc? Maybe use solid wires for the spines? Make 'em easy to replace as they corrode out?
I believe the voltage is always going to be 1.2 per cell, as the voltage difference is directly related to the metals fixed position relative to each other on the galvanic table.
Love these videos. What is the energy density/mah etc. ?
How would one go about calculating this battery's watt hours, theoretically?
Amp hours per square meter of surface?
just look at google scholar!
tell us about the plastic sheath? what is it's purpose and what kind of plastic?
Can we use iodine salt water?
Does the container have to be glass? Is the reaction exothermic?
1st no, 2nd yes.
Maybe you could use a copper pipe, with a zinc rod inside it ? you can get 300mm zinc rods on ebay quite cheap. ps, also some plumbers purchase bulk large magnesium sacrificial anodes for the larger water tanks and just cut the lower portion off to fit them in smaller tanks, so you might find these lower section of sacrificial anodes (minus the screw holder) available as scrap at a low cost. I also wander if you made a screw thread lifting/extracting mechanism; via an Arduino, to halt the reaction and/or reduce the current and controlling the charging by partially removing the zinc rods to produce only a specific current that you are needing, e.g feeding another battery or super capacitor bank to run power
@@malcolmwright7440 Magnesium isn't zinc !
@@rl3898 Yes, thanks you are correct, I edited my original post where I muxed ip boat and hot water sacrificial anodes. I left the reference to hot water magnesium anodes in case someone found it a useful source of magnesium. Zinc rods are cheaply avail on eBay etc.
This is magic !
Thanks for sharing.
Making a battery is easy! Take Gatorade mix and mix it with water! Run a multimeter through it and it will read a small charge!
Simple more often then not gets over looked because its not flashy or sexy but even a Tesla power wall is just a bunch of little batteries in box that costs a pretty penny.
This is pretty much just a variation of the zinc bromide battery, as iodine is another halide. Higher voltage, though, and iodine seems safer than bromine.
Yes totally agree here. The risk of a little iodine staining is far less a problem than bromine poisoning. :)
Great video
what is conductive plastic?
Might be not that easy to source pure iodine. You can make it even easier if you use just some iodine povidon based desinfection (for example betadine, I tried with Czech one called "Jodisol"). A bit less effective in the sense of power, but much more easier in the sense of sourcing it. And now.. you might start to think about improvements.. like.. e.g. boil some excessive alcohol or water from the desinfection before using in the battery.
I have an idea. A self lit lamp.
A bright, efficient led lightbulb, on a tall stand, that is itself a large zamboni pile. If i could make one thats like 4 or 5 inches wide and 5 or 6 feet tall, how long could it power a normal household led bulb?
Then I remembered the bagdad battery used for ancient electroplating, and remembered the theory that one 6ft tall couldve produced like 50 volts.
You can make a rechargeable one all you need it Iron mesh some pincle lead or grafight paper and tinfoil and saltwater with baking soda or powder but it works best with powder
Might be crazy simple, where do we get a bottle of iodine from though? Not being a killjoy, positively the opposite, but the last time I saw a bottle was in high school chemistry, and seriously, just looked on ebay, nothing......
Rob, any help?
You can buy little ones at Smith’s and stuff, but the gov is making it really hard to get in any decent quantities because people are using it to make the street drug meth.
Iodine containing salt would do just as well for an electrolyte mix... Iodine salt is still EVERYWHERE... Can't get salt in your area? No problem. Iodine grows on sea weed. Get enough seaweed and you can refine it to pure iodine by burning away the seaweed portion.
Depends where you reside on the planet . Primenon specialist supplies for "chemicals" are pottery/ceramics craft suppliies, then pool and fertiliser suppliers next . For stuff you can't get via this route , then specialist supplies might have to be the option but never cheap . Some of us may have souvenired samples from our school n university days . Off course you'll know that you gotta check ebay and others regularly till stuff comes up .
@@michaelcorbidge7914 did you know you can harvest you own iodide from seaweed?
@@michaelcorbidge7914 did you also know Pennies and other bottom of the barrel marks of currency are already mixed with copper and zinc? Just need to expose the surfaces of these.
Stuck in the woods with a dead phone. What could you build a temporary battery from? You can always make several to up the current. Urine and 2 different metals? Plane crash. What scrap could you find to build a battery out of? What type of things camping that you might have to make a battery? Food and metals from pots or frame packs. wild berries acidic enough?
Wood ash can be used for its significant amount of potasium oxide that when mixed with water will make potasium hydroxide. Then if you can use nickle and iron for a 1.2v Edison battery probably have to charge it, but they are known to be tolerant of overcharging. Iron is the negative plate and nickle is the positive plate. At 1.2v per cell, 5 cells in serries should give you a voltage of 6 volts to charge your cellphone.
See what I mean? The market for Emergency Survival Batteries like the ones Rob knows how to make is HUGE and unfulfilled.
Imagine if Les Strauss from Survivor Man teamed up with Rob(or Luke) and did a series on energy generation out in survival situations? That would be sooo cool!
One might try a vinegar battery with galvanized nailes and copper. One can make wood vinegar by the destructive distillation of wood while making charcoal.
One can make an aluminum air batery with charcoal and a little salt water.
Hi, thanks for the videos.🙂I had a look at your books via the lnk in your description. Before I buy... are they meant as the step-by-step guide for the projects in your videos like this one?... In pretty much all of your videos you go too fast for me to understand certain points of how/what you are doing - as an ordinary (yet fairly handy) person. Don't mind paying for information(s) just unclear what is offered.
Love your videos. Thank you.
Could you make a more detailed one that we can use, maybe with a bit more DIY work too to improve performance? What would be, say, possible with a 5,10 or 20L bucket, could you hit a 12-13Volt which would be useful for more people to use with common available lights and fans. And aH.. how much would a 10L bucket give? Can you make a 12v 100aH battery in a bucket? Your experiment is very informative but at the same time, i didnt learn anything as there was not test or measuring. :)
mate there is no more detail needed - just make a few and link them up in series - bingo. And there was no need for test or measure I just copied what was in the research - if you want ore detail - have a read at google scholar
Why do put the plastic on the copper mesh electrode?
Hello.
It’s not just plastic, it’s conductive plastic, wich provides a big area, the copper is good conductor of electricity, Rob showed in previous videos how to make it, I suggest you watch his 1600 previous videos, you will know everything. :-)
Ahh yes I'll just grab my copper mesh, conductive plastic granules, iodine and zinc out the cupboard lol
You have these already. Table salt with iodine, spare change coins and paper towels if you don't have high tech plastic mesh from garlic bags and such
I clicked on this before I realized it wasn't "18650" battery. LOL!
Can you do a vid on making batteries out of drink cans steel and aluminium I know they have paint and lacker on the in side which needs to be removed
I would love to see what would happen if you strung all of those simple batteries together, say perhaps 20 of them together and then see if you can drive something substantial
yeah you could - go for it
Who has these materials laying around?
I do and you do too
Excellent battery there Governor but how long will it last before you have to scrap it and start over approximately of course when it lasts a long time years or a month or two
Plating zink tends to form fragile dendrites.
There's a great tictac box supercap vid on YT
yes there is
What is the purpose of the plastic layer?
I would like to know what type of plastic it is, and also what purpose it serves.
What is iodine?
تحياتي الحارة
Copper mesh with plastic fabric wrapped around it. You add water and zinc and iodine? It would be great if you would always add to the comment thread what you use and in what ratio. British English is not always open to everyone. Really hard to read what is meant sometimes. With all due respect, different substances can have a similar name. If you tell what and how, many home chemists will be saved from bad consequences. This is just my five cents of thoughts.
I will refund you 3 of those cents... He has already done so in other videos... Did you see those?
so, given a short a battery only puts out a limited current, a capacitor puts out all of its current, so it needs a resistor.
sizes? numbers, volts, amps..?
HOLY SMOKES
As you are a chemist would like to see the reaction diagrams. Zinc iodide is made?
Yes, crazy simple to make - if you have copper, iodine,zinc at your disposal.Yes, it is simple but not easy if you know what I mean.
I’m sure I made a battery out of a lemon 🍋 as a kid
isnt it more of a generator considering you didnt have to charge it up. ?
Yes like the D or AA batteries you buy at the store.
What current ?
you are just being shown an understood chemistry - have read at google scholar
👏 iron flow chemistry next pleeeease sir 🧐📝
Measure how much electric output with a multimeter, then use a battery voltage regulator (i.e. salvage from a lithium battery by snipping the nickel connections)so you don't fry the circuitry of the device you are powering or charging.
Can anyone tell me a reading of the raw lithium battery capacity when fully charged?
Take a reading after removing the battery power limiter circuitry.
Below sea level you can ground pipe and leaks for month . Almost as bad as a crowd of rhinoceros
Rob,Hope you are well. I need you to get in touch with me. I’ve made perpetual motion
easier than the concrete battery
Different battery. This one is meant for when you are stuck in a survival situation... Concrete battery? That's for when the danger has passed
Easy to make? I have the copper and the zinc, pure H2o, a beaker. But no IODINE (or that plastic mesh, but I may have something like that in cotton). Is there something I have in my house I can put in there? (we all do have the standard acid in house, I even have NaOH for cleaning the drainage pipes). I think the word easy is with respect to your knowledge and your supplies, however we do things from home. And I know you would like us to try for ourselves, how ever I don't like to play with chemicals at all. As in 'play'. I am someone who wants to know what he is doing (not experiment with things he does not know enough of). Fair enough?
Using a carbon rod salvaged from a battery or a piece of graphite instead of the copper mesh/plastic electrode would work as well. It just has to be conductive and chemically inert.
How about a 55 gallon drum?
Zinc-tastic!
What about a silicate salt battery tutorial?