Standard zinc-air cell vs mystery gas generating cell. (flame test)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ค. 2022
- I thought it would be a good idea to compare one of the mystery gas producing cells from an air freshener with a standard zinc-air hearing aid battery.
I bridged both with a 270 ohm resistor to give a controlled current flow, and sealed them inside syringes with some silicone grease on the plunger for an extra seal, then left them to do their thing.
A zinc-air battery is a type of cell that uses the oxygen in ambient air to facilitate an internal chemical reaction. They have some small holes in the cell case, and are supplied with a tab that covers them during storage to prevent the chemical process occuring. To use them you pull the tab off to expose them to air, and they then produce a voltage of about 1.3V.
They are commonly used in hearing aids because they have quite a high energy density and once activated tend to be used immediately.
In this weird application they are deliberately starved of the oxygen they need to generate current, and when a load is applied the smaller voltage they produce passes current through the load and they produce hydrogen gas at a rate determined by the current flow. This allows devices like grease dispensers and air-fresheners to use a simple resistor to set a gas generation speed with no external power required.
When I first discovered this approach in an automatic grease dispenser I mentioned it to AvE who was the inspiration to take the grease dispenser apart in the first place. He has done his own experiment linked here:-
• Hydrogen grease gun?
Here's a link to the video where I discovered these cells being used in an automatic lubricator:-
• Absolute genius automa...
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Clive is such a gentleman, applies the lube using the "rimming technique".
My mom uses hearing aids, and I always wondered why the batteries for her hearing aids had the little tabs and how they kept the batteries “fresh” until use. It has been rather interesting learning about the technology of these batteries, it is rather intriguing!
Same here I always thought the tab was an insulator.
@@chasejdmartin Indeed it is an insulator! It insulates the cell from oxygen until removed.
In some of them, yes. On others it's just a tab to hold the tiny battery with when older fingers have to get them inserted into an equally tiny device.
@@AndyClements yeah, the batteries I've used with tabs do not have holes, it's just an assistant for arthritic hands and proper polarity.
@@volvo09 The cells without holes are a different technology. They'll be alkaline or silver oxide, so more expensive and more polluting. The zinc-air cells need the hole to let the air in and the tab to keep it out until you're ready to use them.
"rim it; and plunge it in"; you're so naughty Mr. Big Clive!
It's *BIG* Clive for a reason.
I'm not going to ask where his silicone grease has been... 😮
@@km077 Hehe, you've been reading his mail haven't you!
Dirty mind detected
My Dad use two hearing aids that use tiny battery's. But the amount of toxic gas he produces must be testament that this theory works.
Great experiment thanks for taking the time to do it.
It's cause he plugged both ears the gas has to escape via another route
The inclusion of a flame test is a good example of why I love your channel.
"A bit on an anti-climax" I guess Clive was hoping for a visible explosion!
@@kenmore01 Like the one he gets with FRHs.
@@kenmore01 I think we all was hopping for a explosion
@@huxter1 All his hopping was in vain. Yes, we *were.
Hey 'Dirty Plumbus' . I also admire Big Clive for including a flame test . To me , it confirms his dedication to teaching and entertaining his loyal subscribers . 👍. Cool name , by the way . I've been a Coal Sampler for over a decade , and always go home covered in filth . Cheers from Australia. 👴🤔👍👍👍
Очень здорово что вы проговариваете все свои действия и объясняете что вы делаете. Это позволяет "смотреть" Ваши видео даже людям с нарушением зрения. Спасибо)
When I was a wee tyke I made some hydrogen using a battery and lead and copper electrodes and saltwater electrolyte. I collected the hydrogen in a small glass test tube. Took it to school and in the play ground demonstrated how it burned. It made a sharp bark and startled the other kids. Later I broke the tube in my pocket and managed to cut my thumb. Wrapped it tightly with bandages and it healed in one day because I was so little. This brought back many such fond memories!
I used to make hydrogen explosives with glycerine and Condie's crystals... as a kid 60 years ago.
@@rossmckenzie2283 please explain more on the crystals I'm sure that people would be interested in this surprised you didn't think about that maybe didn't ever chance or something but still would be interesting for everyone
I used drain cleaner in a baking pan and electricity to try and make hydrogen. It didn't quite go as expected. The glowing chunks put little craters in my mom's kitchen floor. I was old enough to know better but too dumb to quit.
@@aaronbrandenburg2441 condies crystals (or condys crystals) is just plain potassium permanganate, pot perm. it reacts with glycerin in a minute or so and bursts into flame so it can be used as a chemical fuze to light explosives. I presume McKenzie is saying that he uses it as a fuze for setting off a bottle of hydrogen gas or something similar
@@EdwardTriesToScience One of the classic chemistry demos is to make a pile of permanganate crystals and pour the glycerin in the center to make a "volcano". Seems to excite the young'uns.
Hydrogen doesn't need to find gaps to escape. It will diffuse into the metal of a container, cause metal embrittlement, eventually causing it to fail.
Yes hydrogen and brittlement is a big problem in a lot of situations.
Even in welding another place it can be a big problem is boilers.
Even some sorts of feed water for boilers can cause embrittlement in the steel.
I've seen this device they call and environment detector more than once.
Essentially there is a bar of metal same type as the boiler is built from.
There is a fitting nips threaded into where the water lines for the feed water or elsewhere but connected to the feed water that water is allowed to slowly weep on one side of the material that is adjusted with a screw to have a very small Gap so it's constantly exposed to the water.
And the idea is that that piece of sample material is the next supposed to a test detect if it has been in brittled by the feed water.
This was many years ago on heard and seen about this so I don't know if this is still current practice or not not big on this as I used to be and you don't see many installs using seem much anymore or at least where you would be that you would be around it.
Know my way around older systems enough to know about this not profession or anything but just something that I've been interested in in addition so not surprising.
But hydrogen has caused plenty of problems in other areas as well not just a nuclear reactors but in instances with warheads and more.
Even a naval torpedoes.
Where hydrogen peroxide meets certain types of stainless steel yep catalyze hydrogen peroxide equals hydrogen andl Steam and Heat.
There are other catalysts too that enhance this effect.
Once heard about the system that was being tried to keep divers warm in cold water that use this affect the generate heat to keep them warm in one form or another.
This is pretty much also house I'm cold rockets work as well.
But the purity of the hydrogen peroxide is tremendous it has to be taken from the strongest sources available and then even further distilled to even be effective in the most part for things like the cold Rockets.
There hadn't even been experimental jetpacks actually I'd call them rocket packs myself because of the nature of how it works since there's not a true engine is just more of a chemical reaction type of rocket your mileage may vary on how we would describe things and so on but very interesting nonetheless.
And also Ave and big Clive are two of biggest channels I watch for the most part out of all of them on TH-cam as it is of course there's a lot of others but those are the ones upon going to the most I think we're so it seems in anyways.
Oh just a quick edit story time.
I was with the students in the school that was allowed to do all sorts of things that normally would not be done or be permitted and so on and some of the more dangerous stuff but not really going into that now.
However when we hand the experiment and the science class on electrolysis of water using old-school lab power supply and the electrolysis apparatus.
My instructor knew that I was wanting to go to on this and I could do it without really saying anything and knew what he would no that the reason why that he wanted me to do this during the experiment.
And not question anything and also understand the whole thing about the demonstration for the rest of the class.
Essentially what he had me do in the second run the third run on by experiment in the lab was about halfway through or so reverse the polarity of the power supply waiting's on purpose.
So instead of just hydrogen on one side and oxygen on the other both test tubes would have a mix of both hydrogen and oxygen.
And then of course we were testing before Flame the two chest tubes and of course you know what would happened nice big bag and save a little pop!
Of course it would get everyone's attention.
And also be able to demonstrate about hydrogen + oxygen equals much more energy released and so on he told me this before class so as not to give away what we were doing.
He knew I'd keep a lid on it because the NFL I'm very much into science myself and often participated in things such as this and much more.
And yes I had access to school labs and stuff for other let's just say extracurricular and personal projects and stuff and yes sometimes it included the chemistry lab of course under confidence supervision safety precautions and so on.
Also had access to the machine shop and all that stuff their law things for other teachers did repairs heck I even had access to the school own tools unlike anyone else.
Fairfax one time my teacher called me in after class for shop class I thought that somebody had been doing something they shouldn't have been doing again and needed to talk to me and see if I saw something but not this time we had those people trust me and I knew it that was the usual reason I was called after class by the shop teacher I had problems with those people as well so could help with that as well and he knew it.
Most of those mysterious people word a big-time School bullies that you would not want to even know or be there in the first place trust me.
But this time he just called me and says hey Aaron you see that sign up there he said read it I'm like what why he says he'll see!
So I did read it..
No tools will be long so don't even ask..
That's what the sign said.
And then said what about it after quite a long pause.
He said well that didn't apply to me!!!
He knew that sometimes I needed access to tools that I did not have available at home or elsewhere.
That was also when I found out about having access to other things at the school as well even after school and occasionally even during non-school days!
I was at once doing that could do all sorts of things that we're normally probably very much found on or even potentially against school rules.
They said there are certain people like that that had things they could do as well as places they can go that were normally off limits also I was not required to be in every single class everyday depending on circumstances!
You could say ahead of the class also I have various issues and did have access to Teachers Lounge even as well as when need be access to cafeteria in vending throughout the day and if absolutely be I could eat in class this is not just a munching on something full on eating
@@aaronbrandenburg2441 Your post started off well but halfway through it started to go downhill, and after that it just became a mess :D
@@aaronbrandenburg2441 In my younger days, I was assigned as a tech in a steel mill hydrogen-producing plant that provided an atmosphere for a continuous galvanizing line. In addition to being restricted to those really awful spark-proof tools and rubber-soled boots, the big danger was that damned stuff would leak into anything at about 3000 psi. If you went to the loo or got a drink of water, there would always be some hydrogen in the water supply. Never could determine how it got there.
Hydrogen embrittlement? Try ammonia damage to brass.
Ammonia can damage modern brass-cased ammunition, and could even destroy cannons back when they were made of brass. And the best metallurgists still couldn’t come up with good ways to predict or measure it, other than to say “don’t let ammonia near the ammunition.”
Those are probably the main reasons that it isn't more commonly used as a consumer-grade fuel.
I understand small amounts are used to pad out natural gas supplies in some areas though.
My zinc/air hearing batteries, size 13, gain about 70mg of mass over their discharge cycle. This makes it easy to tell how much life is left by using a $20 mg. scale. According to Wikipedia that gained mass is Oxygen.
Side note: the energy density of zinc-air is impressive.
Your research into this has been simply fascinating, I had no idea devices like this existed.
Brilliant example of ingenuity of the physics/chemistry engineers in the real world. I hope teachers are doing this kind of stuff in schools.
@@wthornton7346 Schools don't even have home ec and woodshop anymore in the US. Most of my non-internet education was an utter waste of time.
I really like that you revisited this!
I don't know why but the song "Pop Goes the Weasel" came into my head while watching this video 😁
Nuclear reactor plants have to deal with hydrogen seepage too. It is used for oxygen control in the reactor coolant system. From there it gets in-between the metal grains of boiler tubes while the system is hot. If you were to cool the system while before reducing the hydrogen concentration dissolved in the tubes you can cause them to crack along the grain boundaries. The hydrogen has nowhere to go and causes immense pressures to build up internally leading to material failure.
How does one reduce the hydrogen concentration dissolved in the tubes
@@dwindeyer And an interesting question to Jtretta's interesting post. Hope we get an answer. Thank you to both of you and to *BigClive* and his experiment that caused them both. 👍
Interesting.
Hydrogen assisted cracking of austenetic stainless steel, oof hadn’t said that in a long while haha.
@@dwindeyer The hydrogen originally came from the coolant and exists in the grain structure of the metal in equilibrium. As such, if the hydrogen concentration is reduced in the coolant and a period of time is given, the hydrogen will naturally diffuse out of the metal thus minimizing the effects of the hydrogen assisted cracking. As an aside, I'm always surprised how many other nukes I find on technical youtube videos.
Syringes are never really air tight, but you can also improve your results by having a 3-part syringe, they have an actual silicon double seal at the end.
well said, i thought it was just rubber at the end. curious, how can i se you added the comment to recent video, 8 days ago?
Glass syringes with silicone lube are awesome for this.
yes, we usually inject fluids. gas based medicine is inhaled, as injection would be a one way trip to embolism city
@@DegustoDelSol
Bigclive has a Patreon with early access
@@blueredbrick yes. Glass syringes are an amazing implement!👍
These cells could be interesting in those balloons that have LEDs in them, it would serve a dual purpose of keeping the LED lit and the balloon inflated
I was really baffled about where the hydrogen could be coming from, so I did some research. It looks like four metals _could_ work in metal/air batteries - lithium, magnesium, aluminimum and zinc. Lithium is a bad idea because of moisture in the air, but the reason magnesium and aluminimum aren't used often is because they evolve hydrogen even more than zinc. So in theory, if you really wanted an optimal hydrogen gas generator, Mg/air or Al/air would be even better at it.
Zn/air batteries also evolve hydrogen and there's ongoing research to fix this, like maybe coating the zinc with copper oxide would slow it down. But the hydrogen itself is coming from the electrolyte, typically potassium hydroxide, all in a gel binder to keep it from leaking. So maybe when there's no free oxygen available, the zinc reacts with the OH- group, steals the oxygen from it and liberates the hydrogen? Just an armchair chemist guess.
So the "special" gas generator cells, if they're not just standard zinc/air batteries with a different label, could use Al or Mg, or they could have a higher amount of hydroxides available, if that's a limiting factor in a standard cell in this application.
Haha, then I went over to watch AvE's video, and he's way ahead of me on the hydroxide + aluminimum bit.
The electrolyte gel isn't going to be pure KOH - it has to have some water present too in order to be conductive. So the hydrogen production is more likely to be zinc metal reacting with the water in the electrolyte to make zinc hydroxide. Any metal above hydrogen in the reactivity series (any metal which will dissolve in dilute, non-oxidizing acids) will do this, though some will be faster than others. Alkali metals (lithium, sodium, potassium, etc) are the fastest, followed by the alkaline earths (magnesium, calcium, etc), then aluminium, zinc, iron, tin and lead, though those last three are extremely slow.
Transition metal hydroxides tend to be insoluble in water, so if this were zinc just dipped into water, it would eventually form a thin coating of zinc hydroxide (again really slowly) which would not dissolve, and the reaction would stop once no more zinc could come into contact with the water. The reason it keeps going when there is alkali present (the KOH gel) is because zinc is also one of those strange metals which can dissolve in both acids and alkalis - a property known as amphoteric. The zinc hydroxide reacts with some of the KOH to produce K2Zn(OH)4 - aka potassium zincate. This is also water soluble, so dissolves in the gel, exposing fresh zinc surface and so allowing the first reaction to continue.
yeah I thinking Mg and Mg sulfide can be very interesting along these lines
The way it seemed to work from my reading was that after the chemical reaction to produce the electricity, the waste product was H2O, which would accumulate in the cell and eventually react with any free zinc (producing hydrogen). As you say in your post, this is normally a flaw to be avoided, but here cleverly taken advantage of.
@@lloydevans2900 Thank you for your thorough and informative comment!
I forgot to say I watch your TH-cam channel without missing any of your videos they are always excellent and well done and very informative. From down under Australia.
Hey, I'd just hold the plunger upside down in a vertical position, lay the battery on it and then put the cyllinder over it.
Nice progress on a single night! I'd never know that it generates do much gas.
Thank you Captain Hindsight
Smartypants
Agreed. After lubing the plunger, the battery will easily stick to it. Then just slide the cylinder down over them. Clive's thinking outside the box processor needed a reboot.
@@ch4.hayabusa its called peer review !
@@Slicerwizard When my plunger is lubed, it becomes very slippery.
That squeaky pop rapid combustion is the classic identifier of hydrogen combustion, and is actually a lab test which even GCSE chemistry students learn about. A typical lab experiment is to drop some zinc or magnesium granules into some dilute acid in a test tube, wait for it to start dissolving and fizzing up (producing hydrogen), and then ignite the gas with a match at the top of the tube. You get the same kind of pop as you experienced here - though the squeakiness is much more pronounced in a glass tube.
Clive: "i'll hold the battery with my ceramic tweezers so i don't burn myself while using the heat gun"
Also Clive: "i'll use my bare fingers to squeeze molten plastic together"
Plastic is not a good conductor of heat. I use my bare fingers to strip wires like this.
@@methamphetamememcmeth3422 While you are absolutely right, you also ruined a funny comment.
@@methamphetamememcmeth3422 why do you heat wires before you strip them?
I would think those are Bear fingers ...
So so so many interesting stuff I have learnt from you Clive and this is no exception! Thank you
Interesting experiment! Another way to release the gas is snipping the seal tip and pushing the gas into the flame in a controlled manner. Worth trying out the experiment further!
It’s really a great experiment thank you for taking the time to do the tests
With phases like "rimming it", "pushed in a bit more at the bottom" and "shove it back in", you'd better hope everybody is watching this, as well as listening to it. 😁
cool that you did a follow up video to the autogreaser that used these small gas generators
Rim it with silicone grease and plunge it in! This is quality youtube content! 😎
Indeed 😂😂
(Although I use the syringe as a lube applicator/shooter/whatever and with water-based lube instead of silicone lube.)
And hoping it lays flat while doing so. Just another BigClive experiment.
The video I’ve been waiting for 😂. I was so curious after the lasts videos. Another amazing BigClive video.
Absolutely fascinating experiment. Cheers Prof. Big Clive :)
This is truly amazing Clive!!
I love the conclusion to this video series... but I'd love even more if this video proves not to be the conclusion of the series. You're the only youtuber whose notifications I will never skip, no matter what is happening at the time you release new vids.
That was a fun experiment to watch. I love how the gas blew the candle out with a small pop. There have been times where I've been known to blow some candles out with my gas to!
Stick a dab of grease on the plunger end , lay the battery flat side down on the plunger , then insert.
I love live experiments! - If you put a small zip-tie down in the syringe, you can push the plunger all the way into a sealed syringe. When you have the plunger where you want it, just pull the tie out and the plunger will seal up.
Or a thin piece of wire. Good idea.
I can tell you let out a cheeky smile as you said _"I'll just rim it"_ . Your voice gave you away haha.
Saw many zinc air batteries at the hospital I work at and wondered why. Now. I know. Thanks Clive
They were for hearing aids, right ?
Closed caption is cool af. Thanks!
Clive, I think you are Brilliant, but I had to smile when you put the battery in the syringe and were surprised it would not stay flat when you tipped the tube up.
Fun Experiment!! thanks Clive! More please!!!
Great demonstration as always .Can't wait to see if they actually build rechargeable zinc air batteries for solar installation.Its the safest of all batteries .
I knew you'd do a video on this. I didn't see the syringe coming. Well done, #SirClive !
Using syringes for this is genius, I was pondering how to do this with the last vid and just came up with inverted cups in bowls of water and volumetric flasks. Syringe solves all of it in one go!
Clive, Febreze recently advertised a new product that has a circuit board inside of it. It's one of the selling features. An online search brought up a number of businesses that mention it. It might be an interesting disection.
Very nice experiment!! informational indeed👍👍 TY
Great interesting video I always thought it was a chemical reaction like the good old bi-carb.
I can see how they are so accurate being an electrical discharge controlled by resistance.
Have you seen the tags we get supplied with these size of key fob you push a button and the indicator bar graph changes to alert you to change them.
The idea is that you attach it to the outside of the cabinet. We never do but I keep a drawer full of them as we just set a reminder on the computer to change to save customers worry.
I haven't seen the remote time reminders.
@@bigclivedotcom I will take a picture and email this afternoon
Interesting experiment! Knowing the type of approaches from AvE, I bet he made a significant explosion 🙂Got to go back to watch his videos.
That hidrogen seepage problem is one big reason why making rocket fuel tanks is so difficult and expensive, not too long ago a composite material tank of a spacex rocket went bang because the hidrogen seeped in between the carbon fibre layers and caused it to peel like a higly pressurized cryogenic onion. Edit: spacex doesn't use hidrogen for their rockets, my bad.
If I'm not mistaken one of their engines went bang yesterday.
Spacex haven't used hydrogen in any of their rockets as far as I'm aware
@@arletottens6349 thx👍
You are thinking of those big bubble things that store the hydrogen, they are made of steel and the hydrogen even seeps through that! Steel is “porous” to the hydrogen due to its itty bitty size
For fucks sake it's hYdrogen.
Brilliant!
And thanks to Ave for the suggestion to check out your videos on this…
I didn't know ceramic tweezers were a thing and now I love the idea!
Very cheap on eBay.
@@bigclivedotcom Thanks Clive 😊
Well worth exploring indeed my friend :) looking forward to it
I just pulled ur finger prints off that plastic tip. Perfect match. We know what u have done Clive!
I always assumed the little tabs on hearing aid batteries were for helping old clumsy hands to handle them 😂
“Stinky Schmoo” sounds like a great mid-90s jangle pop band
Interesting. I use zinc-air batteries in my old Pentax light meter (used to determine the right exposure for old fashioned film photography) because that is designed to use a long discontinued mercury cell which will give a very consistent 1.35V for it's entire life so the metering circuit can be very simple as it doesn't need to compensate for the battery voltage changing as the battery wears out. A zinc-air cell is a decent substitute as it gives about the same voltage and also holds it quite constant. Of course the problem of the zinc-air batteries is their short shelf life after activated, only a couple of months, but on the other hand they are rather inexpensive so not a big problem.
This is assuming the battery compartment cap doesnt have a sealing gasket? I remember seeing a company that made step down converters for appliances that ran on mercury cells, an adapter that goes on a silver or alkaline battery and steps it down to 1.2V. Though it limits the cell size and capacity.
These old light meters and cameras aren’t usually weather sealed so oxygen can easily get to the battery chamber. I’ve used a zinc air cell in my rollei 35, which has a pretty well buried battery chamber and it worked just fine.
@@thepurestofboredom1219 Yeah, I was thinking about some of the 60s and early 70s cameras that might still be using mercury, and those started to have some seals in them.
@@thepurestofboredom1219 Same here for the viewfinder on my old Nikon F2S. Doesn't matter now--I haven't shot a roll of real film in a long time.
I replaced the mercury cells in an old Aimpoint red dot sight with Zinc-Air cells. This was about 20 years ago, probably a bit more and it was their second or third design so it chewed through the batteries pretty quickly compared to modern designs. Anyway the sight was weather sealed, I think it was even rated for submersion, so the battery compartment was properly sealed. The Zinc-Air batteries worked fine but tended to run out after a day or so. But just opening the battery compartment and taking the batteries out and putting them back in again was enough to revive them. I'm not certain how many hours of use I could get out of them but it was some decent time. As an added bonus this worked even if I forgot to turn the sight off, as at this time there were no timeout or motion sensors taking care of this. You turned it on and off using a twist knob. Forget to turn it off and it emptied the batteries within a week, and that was with the mercury cells. The Zinc-Air cells would just run out of oxygen and stop working in a day or so.
Fascinating video
I didn't come here to be made smarter, Clive. I come to be entertained and amused which happens easily with me. What were we talking about again?
Thanks Clive. Be interesting to do the same, only in an upside down tube of oil.
So we could see the gas accumulating at the top, and hopefully also see bubbles rising.
Great video! Thanks
You could always use a balloon to ensure you capture everything . You just need to seal it with a good sealant.
balloon is terrible at containing hydrogen.
notice how helium which is of a larger atomic size goes flat? hydrogen will do that twice as fast.
Unfortunately, because Hydrogen is such a small molecule, it will easily diffuse through a rubber balloon. I really won't hold it at all.
While true that rubber has bigger gaps between its atoms for the hydrogen to escape through, mylar (used for weather balloons I think?) Is better... Although nothing that moves is good at blocking the escape really since the atoms are so small.
Hydrogen is such a small element that it will permeate through the walls of steel cylinders and plastic. Only surface tension can keep it retained under pressure for long, this is why gas bottles for hydrogen have an internal lining structure that looks very similar to a sponge.
So unfortunately no matter how air tight you make a syringe the hydrogen will leak out.
I have a large(ish) vacuum chamber with 13mm thick steel walls. If I pump it down with the diffusion pump then seal it up and shut down, after a few weeks the pressure in the chamber rises by a few tenths of a torr If I try to pump it back down I can't without first fully re-pressurizing the chamber. Turns out that while the chamber is holding a vacuum for a few weeks hydrogen appears to find its way in to the chamber and refuses to pump out in a timely manner.
@@JlerchTampa Easy hydrogen concentrator, cool.
@3:39 -
Cause, nothing ever goes as planned
It's a hell of a notion
Even pharaohs turn to sand
Like a drop in the ocean
You're so together, you act so civilized
But every time that things go wrong you're still surprised
You've done your duty, you've paid a fortune in dues
Still got them mother nature's blues
Styx - "Nothing Ever Goes As Planned"
Nice more Clive for us. Nice if battery is used mean it's a nice video
Reminds me of the electrolysis reaction we performed to make little pipette rockets. We loaded the thing you squeeze on the back of the pipettes with hydrogen, loaded them on a sort of stick with some electrodes, then jumped some wires with a 9 volt battery to create a spark and we watched the thing shoot off with the force of a bullet. You don't mess around with hydrogen, but my chemistry teacher was as cool as he was a saint.
This has been fascinating Clive. I've been experiencing quite a hearing degradation in one of my ears that they don't know why. One of them has aged about 20 years more than the other in a very short period of time, so they are saying I should try a hearing aid, so I was fascinated to learn that the zinc air cells are what are used to power them. Probably a huge coincidence that you'd done a video on them, but definitely a battery technology I hadn't heard of until you did these experiments. Incredibly simple idea but great... although hydrogen scares me. It's incredibly easy to end up with hydrogen explosions so I try and avoid it at all costs, since it needs a healthy amount of respect!
Don't worry about hydrogen with those batteries at all. Amounts they can release is way too little to cause any explosion. As you saw in the video, Clive took a time to collect a syringeful of it, only to end up blowing *out* the candle flame with it.
And in intended usage - to generate electricity - as in hearing aid, where it gets air, it doesn't generate hydrogen. It only occurs in this alternate usage, where it is electrically loaded with oxygen deprived.
@@TheSimoc Oh yeah, in tiny amounts, yeah... but I meant hydrogen scares me in general, just it's ease to ignite and incredibly wide.. uhh ... forgot the name now, but the percentage of it in a unit of gas until it explodes. In hearing aid batteries, totally wouldn't bother me, and you have to use them without access to air so... :)
You: Hydrogen scares me. It needs a healthy amount of respect!
Me when I was a researcher: Yes, I do have 50 atmospheres of hydrogen in here and I am focussing a high-powered laser on it. Is that a problem?
@@robertfitzjohn4755 We wouldn't call it research if we knew what we were doing? :p Plus... I'm assuming that you'd have been sensible when doing the research :)
I love stuff like this. Just fking around and finding out.
I wonder how much influence temperature has on this effect.
In theory, a whole load of long term event timers could be made like this...
Interesting research. Thanks for doing the experiment so we don't have to. 👍🏻
Ooh, I’d imagine temperature would have a fairly dramatic effect?
You ever going to make a video about magnetism? I think you are one of the few actually smart enough to explain how it really works to us normal people.
That would require that there was an explanation for magnetism. My own theory is trapped electrons creating a concentrated charge in a material's structure.
interesting use of time. I amsure the guys how looked into how much and the pressure of the gas had been getting paid more the a TH-camr. 👌 Great video 2x👍
This is pretty darn cool, might be interesting to use these to produce well defined quantities of hydrogen.
They're used in many controlled dosing systems.
Love it when you go full science.
Double love for the non conducting tweezers
eBay ceramic tweezers. Very common and very cheap.
Big Clive, the master of rimming.
You can dandle the battery in a test tube that has ml markers. Put it upside down in a water container, so round side up with the battery. Fill the tube mostly with water then the gas should push the water out leaving only the hydrogen inside. Would make it easier to test and less hydrogen loss.
I don't think you can store hydrogen in glass containers. Too much leakage.
I would suggest oil to prevent messing with conductivity. Also one can use a syringe with plugged nozzle as a measuring cylinder.
@@pamersiel bruh
Wow that's pretty interesting Thanks for sharing And testing
Adhesive lined heat shrink is great for locking things into place.
Really interesting. 👍😎
I suppose it makes sense that the gas generation would scale linearly with resistance. If we assume the reaction is made possible by the transfer of electrons, so that each electron (or a multiple thereof) would generate a molecule of hydrogen gas. And since the current through the resistor is by definition the number of electrons passing through the resistance every second, the number of molecules produced each second would be proportional to the current which in turn is inversely proportional to the resistance (by ohms law I=V/R). The volume (or pressure) is proportional to the number of molecules (the ideal gas law PV=nRT). So the volume generated after a certain time would be inversely proportional to the resistance. (Assuming constant voltage, which in reality would drop when the battery gets depleted and the reaction stops of course).
use of a magnet to guide the battery position inside the syringe is a handy way since the battery casings are cheap iron and even if nickel plated, are still magnet steerable.
Really didn't expect this to work.
Awesome experiment Awesome Video big clive
"Lie down flat, rim it, plunge it in....." #CarryOnClive
use the heat gun and cold pliers to pinch the ends of heat shrink and plastics. Saves burning your fingers and the cold steel of the pliers cools the material quickly, it also gets a nice ribbed pattern too.
Very cool!!
You're always so nice and polite, it's realy hilarious when you try to find swear words to use 🤣🤣
Put the battery on the plunger and then stick it in, but that would have killed the entertainment hehe.
Just watched the Fray Bentos pie reviews and I'd like to see you review some more food personally, quite enjoyable 🙂
Very interesting experiment.
I wonder what would happen if you throw it in a glass of soapy water?
Unless it reacts with water, which would also be interesting.
Hydrogen is almost insoluble in water. So to get around the possible losses due to seals put the syringe in an upside down glass filled with water (within a bigger container of water). If the syringe leaks the hydrogen will be captured in the glass. You could even leave the plunger out of the syringe and cut the syringe itself much shorter, just to a length that the cell stays dry, but the glass is actually the thing catching the gas.
It's flammability limits are 3-97% if I remember right. It did pop so probably. Release the other one under soapy water and get bubbles to light. I did rust conversion before and put soap in to clear the scum and I had bubbles from hell. Cracked like lightning. Knocked the dust off the ceiling.
Spicy bubbles for sure. Make some with a perfect mix of both Hydrogen and Oxygen and light them on fire. Instant bang!
A very good Tuesday afternoon
If you’re cutting a lot of abrasives, then you can get carbide Stanley knife blades.
Not so good for prying, but for cutting, I’ve not found any peers so far, and their resistance to abrasion is impressive.
and then BANG, hydrogen explosion
Everyone is complimenting you on this video and I'm just left frustrated because you didn't light the gas in the other syringe. :(
Like others have said, I also knew nothing about this method of producing hydrogen or its application, so thanks for another educational video. :)
Those syringes are probably made of polyethylene or polypropylene, which are partially crystalline. When it melts, the crystalline structure breaks down causing it to turn clear, then it fogs back up as it solidifies and recrystallizes.
I had one explode on me one day. Sounded like a gun shot. I peed a little. It happens.
That 675 cell works really well as a replacement for the Mercury oxide cells used in vintage 35mm camera equipment too. Though it's interesting about the hydrogen. Makes me wonder about their use in hearing aids and cochlear implants.
the hydrogen production is so incredibly small and slow it doesn't matter in that application.
it needs to be starved of oxygen to produce the hydrogen so in normal use the effect does not occur
I think I found another device that uses zinc-air cells for operation. It's an automatic bait dispenser for the A24 Good Nature rat trap. Installation involves removing a coin that is magnetically attached to the top of the bait dispenser cartridge, presumably to close a reed switch. The dispenser then slowly pushes out the bait over the course of 6 months.
I am GLAD to see you're doing science and Still Alive.
Anyway, this cake is great... so delicious and moist...
You can also get large zinc-air cells designed for industrial use. For example the AD513 (Zinc air depol. battery AD513 1.4V 900Ah). They are rather pricey though.
An obvious possible difference: Zinc-air cell is designed for maximum charge delivery, whereas gas generation cells may be designed for a specified gas yield, since more flammable gas is not necessarily better in a confined space.
150ml of gas apparently.
Put a piece of small diameter wire or monofilament into the syringe body, insert the plunger and push it all the way in, then remove the wire. The wire should hold open a small gap in the seal.
I use those exact batteries for a camera's light meter that was designed for mercury batteries, with the relatively small holes in the camera's battery compartment it seem to generate a voltage close enough to the 1.35v of a mercury battery, at least close enough that the light meter readings are good enough that the pictures from that camera looks pretty good.
Hey big clive.: Tonight on BBC1 the ONE show looked at a power factor corrector and some saver device you plug into your car OBD. Purchases from ebay. But then they kicked up a fuss saying ebay should not sell this stuff, and ebay said oh ok we thinking about removing this category of products.
Perhaps, place them in a balloon? I would imagine they would lift or at least become noticably lighter?