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A dirt-cheap DIY Iron-Alkaline Battery Chemistry
I was digging into some research for sodium-ion solid-state batteries a few days ago, and absolutely failed to create one. I have to say, though, it was a pretty glorious failure - I managed to create a really good Alkaline battery!
Most of my research is in rechargable batteries for use in developing regions, and as such I create them in a discharged state and have to cycle them multiple times before I really see anything useful. I’m really interested in sodium and potassium-ion batteries because of the abundance and availability of the materials. Solid state batteries are just interesting to me, and an area of chemistry I know very little about — so I’m always interested in learning more.
I had created this cell to see if I could mimic another inventor’s demonstration, but his youtube channel was very sparse in terms of how his battery worked. I only briefly say anything approaching his results, so I decided to just kind of play with the materials. A quick little assembly later, and my battery … just worked. I assembled it, and it started climbing to 1.3v — so I popped a little garden light on it (~7mA). 24 hours later and it’s still running (1.065v at the moment), so I figured I’d share my results.
The beauty here is the simplicity of the cell, and the cheap material costs. I haven’t tried a tin-pated can…
