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A battery/flow battery separator technique inspired by Christmas candy.
My grandparents’ house at Christmastime always had a strange array of Old World treats and candies that I never found anywhere else in my daily life. Pazzellas, Odd Christmas cookies, strange flavors decorated their table for the guests in a strange mix of West Virginia, Italian, and Hungarian food traditions. Also around the house were bowls (and “gumball machines”) of odd candies not found too often any more. Most of the fun as a child was pulling off candy heists during the party. A well trained crew, and some well timed distractions could pay off in a bounty of sugary treats. While my favorite flavor was the “sour cherry balls” locked way in the gumball machine, the ribbon candy held my attention. A work of art, ribbon candy is a glossy ribbon of sugar and strong flavors that could be snapped off as required. As candy goes, it was essentially a run of the mill block of flavored sugar, but the mystique of that sinusoidal shape, and the “choose your length” property made it particularly attractive to me as child. As a child, I found the design fascinating.
As an adult, I’m fascinated by batteries. Every battery has a positive and a negative electrode, separated by a membrane or separator. In a rolled cell (like the 18650 cells that power your laptop or the oblong “jelly roll” or “flattened roll” cells in some off-grid…
