1628 Paper Battery As Powerful As an AA And Activated by Water

link to paper www.nature.com/articles/s4159...
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[@pikotech1]

As you know by now mate, I often have additional questions and suggestions after each video, but I have to say, well done Rob! Fantastic video. It had everything: Time for the theory, real world example in practice, along with instruction as to how to replicate! Probably one of your best right there!

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

oh wow cheers mate - and yes you do make good suggestions - I often take them on board - I am glad you liked this one

[@kendo695]

@@ThinkingandTinkering Very cool, disposable battery probably should be banned, as well.

[@comicmania2008]

Not bad, loved the video, thanks! In the RAF around 1979, there were batteries in survival equipment /kits (such as life raft kits), that had batteries that you submerged into the ocean (seawater). We were told that these were used to run a flashing distress beacon, and used saltwater as an electrolyte. Not very powerful, of course, but it could save your life by alerting search aircraft to where you were!

[@Wavy_Gravy]

See that's the kind of tech i like, Something to make your worst day a little more survivable.

[@angelusmendez5084]

Reminds me of the so called stone paper made with 70% Calcium carbonate and 30% HDPE. It immediately made me think about its applications for battery making

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

nice heads up mate - I will look into that!

[@ronniepirtlejr2606]

The Disposable batteries probably wouldn't be so popular if, they didn't hold such a high amount of mAh per charge versus the rechargeable batteries. Most "small" rechargeable batteries do not have a high mAh per charge. They are superior in mAh per lifetime of the cell. Great video Robert! You are a encyclopedia of knowledge & a inspiration to us all!👍

[@bfernb4388]

You are quickly becoming my favorite person on KZbin (masses of people are wasting the best invention, information on the internet!) You can learn or do anything now if you use creativity and your brain. Thank you for your contributions

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

Wow, thanks! and I agree it's all about using your creativity!

[@xxEndermelonxx]

If I'm understanding it correctly, someone could in theory insulate each side with a biodegradable wax or wax paper, roll it tightly, and somehow activate the electrolyte when ready use, would have an AA battery for 2 hours that's entirely biodegradable and cheap? I like it. Sounds like it would be invaluable to underdeveloped countries

[@xxEndermelonxx]

Pardon my atrocious grammar lol

[@zeabobql3923]

The definition of a battery is two dissimilar metals immersed in a conductive medium. So really it's pretty open ended.

[@david2ljdavid2lj56]

@@zeabobql3923 a container consisting of one or more cells, in which chemical energy is converted into electricity and used as a source of power. That's the definition I found.

[@ivanolsen8596]

@@xxEndermelonxx Dont worry about the grammar, its the content that counts!

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

I like the way you are thinking there mate

[@thomasking5970]

"Water-activated" batteries have been around for literally decades; they see use in radiosonds (weather balloons) and sonobouys. Nice DIY project. 🙂

[@AaronWood5887]

Outstanding presentation Robert as we should be more aware of the ways we can store energy in a safe manner without destroying the world we live in. Please keep up the good work and thank you.

[@daviddouglas4200]

Bob , Many years ago at sea we had lifejackets fitted with small lights . The battery powering these only came to life when immersed in sea water..........

[@martinlicht1969]

You're right on about amazing paper. I visited a paper mill years ago and it was beyond belief what goes into paper production. The mill is a multiple story building and blocks long. They grow there own special trees and do great job being good to environment. Sad that we live in a world lead by pervayors of completely false history; the true origin of paper battery being but one example in a mountain of deception. Greed will protect the AA battery, and unlikely heroes will make the scene rescuing us claiming undeserved credit for things that have been around for 100s of years.

[@Barskor1]

They should go back to hemp for the base material rather than wood.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

I come across it time and again mate

[@paddy2661]

So true , the cover-ups are endless to keep 7.4b rolling out.. Great video Rob love them ❤ Have you tried freezing a dead AA or 9v battery for a week in freezer in a snap sealed bag ? To bring it back to life ..

[@glenhill9884]

Great little video. I just finished making a blog article on this topic including that paper and now I've found the vid! Cool. I linked it in my blog.

[@kokeskokeskokes]

This is very useful to me, thank you.

[@xavieraeby9563]

Thanks for reviewing our work mate. Keep up the good work.

[@MrJaylassiter]

Watched this one and was so interested I allmost forgot to like. Great video.

[@MikeGrayM70]

I love these home-made battery videos! I never get tired of them. Especially the ones made from cheap, easy to find materials. One of these days, I want to build a home made battery that can charge my phone, and be recharged with solar or some other novel device.

[@nlabanok]

Thank you for sharing, a very nice find on this newly published paper. There are literally hundreds of avenues of optimization on the foundation this paper describes.... application-specific / form factor avenues, processing, materials / recipe...cheers!

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

oh yeah mate - and it is open source - which I like!

[@docsharp87]

Great video! I really loved that you edited the instructions over the video. I try and take notes when I watch and having it all written out is so helpful. Much appreciated Rob.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

I did wonder about doing that mate - so nice to get feedback on that - cheers

[@erichfeit7779]

Thank you for keeping us up-to-date, as you normally do! Erich from New Zealand

[@ArcanusLibero]

Excellent demonstration. Thanks for your efforts.

[@kazparzyxzpenualt8111]

" one of the reasons I love paper" Thanks for this excellent how to! Thank you very much indeed!

[@Killianwsh]

Great stuff! Thanks Rob!

[@joohop]

Great Video Earthling Bless Up

[@solarhope]

A great little battery Rob :-) Whatever happened to your paper battery you was making some years ago? I can remember you had a pile of paper cells that you had made and taken days to assemble.

[@zylascope]

I wonder how a battery would be constructed that uses this research, that could replace AAs and still be easy to recycle?

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

it is still ongoing mate - getting stuff into production is quite a challenge - far more than folks think

[@aarondingus3548]

Another incredible video that blew my mind. Thank you!

[@lorenbush8876]

Thanks Robert that's really interesting.

[@derghiarrinde]

Amazing. Thank you!

[@simongross3122]

Absolutely brilliant. Thanks for sharing it.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@wmffgeorge1589]

Where are you with your old paper pouch batterys? I don't recall a conclusion to that production. I struggle to remember with what chemistry, but I always fancied making long Peper batery rolls, housing the cells in pipes and those in 45 gallon barrels. Haven't gotten round to it yet.

[@William_Hada]

Brilliant, got to make one now! Thanks for sharing.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

awesome mate - let me know how you get on - cheers

[@TheMarcusrobbins]

This was fantastic! You rock!

[@e7yu]

Think you for the link. I downloaded my copy. And hope to make this one day. 👍😎

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

it will be fun if you do mate

[@gaiustesla9324]

so simple and yet so awesome!

[@TheMan1510]

This is awesome! Thank you, Robert :-)

[@zylascope]

Thanks Robert. I'll be trying that one.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

it is a good one mate

[@iami9307]

I’ve been waiting for you to do that with your conductive ink

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

I am reluctant to do that as it would mean you would think you had to buy the ink - the in would work well but I also want folks to see they don't need the ink if they don't want it

[@n8rtotplayz647]

Great stuff, as always!

[@Buzzhumma]

Can't wait to see what you to come up with as an improvement Rob. Hmmmm all things being considered it may be a bit of a challenge . Best thought i have is using already used office paper or finding industries that use large amounts of paper like news print. Not so sure news paper would be strong enough although after being painted it might be fine!

[@kenvater2843]

any and all of these open source articles are fantastic, saving the world and ourselves one paper at a time. More power to you Rob

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

I agree mate they are awesome and cheers

[@teltwosheds2972]

Fascinating thank you

[@GeraldBlack1]

Wonder if a whole roll of paper towels would last all night lol.

[@wickedprotos1937]

Robert, you are an amazing inventor.!!!

[@kennedy67951]

Another awesome Battery video Robert. I just wonder, 'could you do a video over a Rechargeable Paper Battery? My brothers Sail Boat comes to mind, and this type of Battery maybe the solution I've been looking for. Thanks again for your good Heart in sharing your hard earned knowledge with me.

[@agritech802]

That's brilliant Robert, thanks for sharing 👍

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

glad you liked it mate

[@nathant97]

Good video, would like to see a longer, broken down, step by step way to make the battery. Ether way, definitely something to try out!

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

length of a video is always a bit of a balancing act mate - but I think I got all the info in and the paper does do a good job of the step by step

[@TrimTab87]

Amazing! I always feel empowered to experiment after hearing from you. Do you have a forum your listeners can share results to?

[@bacilluscereus1299]

If not, set one up yourself. Or use a shared google spreadsheet.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

I believe there is a discord - ask angelus about it - he is in the comments and usually comments in the first few

[@salilsahani2721]

Thank you :)

[@SumNumber]

A multilayered stack of those wired in parallel might be good for a bit. :O)

[@Afro408]

Naughty boy Robert. 🤔 Not uncoiling that extension lead before plugging that hot plate in. 😏 Please explain the dangers in your next video. Otherwise, great info as usual. 👍👏👏

[@robb4044]

Great vid. Very informative.

[@herbetone]

Great find, it would be great if the industries move with this concept, many thanks Robert.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

indeed mate

[@leestephens7281]

I find all your stuff real interesting, always watching it at work, i would be interested in any you have or could do on hydrocarbonization,

[@lonelymacan]

First, thanks for great video Robert. Second, I like the point that you made about Standford. 😁 I share your experience on that. Third, keep up the good work. People like you are what made your your nation, continent and human kind great.

[@joelaichner3025]

Always Quality stuff !

[@silencedandshadowbanned7277]

Thank you for the video and history lesson

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

glad you liked it mate

[@overbuiltautomotive1299]

Robert great video sir ..The issue i have with off the shelf rechargeable NIMH batterys like AAA and so forth is the lower voltage in some cases hurts performance of what its running but thats that

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

yeah indeed mate - but sometimes you get what you get!

[@overbuiltautomotive1299]

@@ThinkingandTinkering yes sir reBob ye do.and all the pissin and moaning about it changes nothing it seems 🤐

[@andygozzo72]

there are, or at least WERE nickel zinc batteries with a 1.6v terminal voltage, i'm using some in a digital camera which doesnt like nicads/nimhs due to the low voltage, but eats normal alkaline ones pretty quickly , i got 4 of them some years back , unfortunately 2 have since failed after only a few charge cycles, gone 'open' maybe this is an issue with them? limited shelf life? i have no idea as yet if theyre still available, i hope so as would like to get a few more, you have to use a charger designed for them as nicad/nimh type is not advisable as simple types will overcharge them (may be possible to mod them), 'smart' ones likely to reject them as 'bad'

[@overbuiltautomotive1299]

@@andygozzo72 cool ill look into it thanks

[@chrishayes5755]

always enjoy your battery making videos, well done sir

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

Thank you kindly

[@lemix69]

Wow! That's neet! I'm going to download the paper and give it a try. I build my own battery packs for E-bikes, so I'm wondering if this will ever progress to rechargeable batteries that could run an e-bike. Well, thanks again for another excellent video and head scratcher! 😎👍

[@HighWealder]

Great. Just as aside, I am curious to know if you could get a current from using say aluminium beer cans and scrap iron immersed in seawater ? I don't have any testing equipment myself.

[@simonwatson5299]

What a great little battery!!! Biodegradable too!!

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

I agree mate

[@nwflboy007powell8]

I agree paper batteries have been around for a long, long time. I built one for a school project back in 1974. We utilized paper in a plastic bottle, mine was D cell size.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

wow - nice

[@wandamaddox7824]

Finally gets to the point at 2:23

[@feelincrispy7053]

Ha, this is a gem of YT recommendation. I like this guy haha

[@CNCmachiningisfun]

This looks good on paper - - - and on your voltmeter too :) .

[@natemiller6389]

Junk mail battery... Outstanding .

[@8ank3r]

I have got to make one of these.

[@philipdoyle1851]

Brilliant!

[@maxkennedy5073]

Interesting, few plastic tubes of different battery sizes with conductive ends, slight change in the morphology, few mL of electrolyte, push in a pre-rolled dry cell, pop the top on and presto your own AA battery or whatever. Remove roll when dead, more electrolyte another roll and on your way. Take the old paper, put in an electrolysis cell recover the zinc and away you go again. Very nice, bugger off disposables.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

that would work mate

[@Buzzhumma]

You could use baking or waxed paper to hold the roll together.

[@sydneyhunt6681]

Great video as always 👍 👌

[@venkateshks6664]

bloody brilliant as usual

[@briansmithenergy248]

Respect and gratitude

[@Warriorking.1963]

What a cool experiment! One question, and maybe I'm really stupid here, but where do you purchase things like zinc powder? This was a terrific video, and I was genuinely blown away with the size of the battery market.

[@bjorndunderbeck]

Cheers rob, i remember your videos from years ago werent you making these kinda things yourself ? I remember carbon seaweed inks, all manner of messy black stuff? Anyway hope companies get on with being more environmentally on it with their products though I really feel like we will be out of time, so much needs to change, Ive been picking up discarded vapes recently, have you seen what is in them? Its just mental honestly! Love where you are coming from mate!

[@Alkimi]

You're a modern Merlin. Thanks for the straightforward explanation, as always.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

wow - cheers mate

[@Undercoverbooks]

Fascinating!

[@jdsr7423]

That's awesome 😎

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

Glad you think so!

[@keithking1985]

Thanks Rob.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

cheers mate

[@MaximusMuleti]

This is mind blowing!! I've got to imagine if you put a layer of insulation on top of a shower, you could roll it up and slide it into a sleeve, thereby condensing it. If you were to run these in parallel, I also imagine you'd get significantly longer life out of them too

[@breaking_bear]

There's a paper about making a battery out of paper. This paper inspired us to make paper batteries. Paper is recyclable and biodegradable. Both the premise and the physical structure of this project have alot in common, strangely enough.

[@emel60]

Excellent video and ingeniously simple technique! Could you please do a video on decomposition of polymers by microwaving, where the by products are pure hydrogen and multiwalled carbon nanotubes?

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

I can look at it for sure

[@emel60]

@@ThinkingandTinkering Thank you very much Mr. Murray-Smith! Below I am providing the original article name which I came upon a couple of years back. I figure it would be a interesting and important knowledge to spread. I believe this would be the most cost effective way to produce H2 gas, but I leave it up to you! "Microwave-initiated Catalytic Deconstruction of Plastic 2 Waste into Hydrogen and High-Value Carbons"

[@CaptApril123]

Doable at home, not necessarily easy. Great video.

[@voltrevolt8731]

Paper is truly one of the most underrated and amazing substances human beings have come up with...

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

absolutely agree with that mate

[@josephalan2232]

OK.. That was cool.. Thank you..!

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

Glad you liked it!

[@michaelstarkey9745]

Great ingenuity go team!!!

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

absolutely mate

[@WileHeCoyote]

Wouldn't it be lovely if someone made a rebuildable AA battery sleeve, little stainless thing with a thick graphite rod in the middle to wrap your paper around!

[@IN-FINITE_WISDOM]

Hi! Long time viewer with a question regarding this video. Do you think it would be possible to treat the carbon black with Dilute solution of potassium premeganate to make Nano particles of manganese dioxide. As for catalyst. (Somthing you taught me on magnesium battery video)

[@Mr-Highball]

Very interesting video, thanks

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

cheers mate

[@Mr-Highball]

@@ThinkingandTinkering 🍻

[@joelaichner3025]

Way back , Monday thru Saturday , Caveman , home delivery , but on Sunday , you come to the quarry to read ,

[@mrpants8976]

It might be possible to roll up the paper into a tube or stack multiple sheets of paper with sort of insulation between them to increase the voltage, though I am a little concerned of arching with a load of paper in a area

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

did you know paper is actually a fire retardant?

[@getyourbone]

I know kinda off topic but could you point me to the video you did a year of more back about a rod wrapped with wire to evenly coat sheets with a fluid…what is is the the name of that rod?…I remember you saying that they were very expensive to buy but one could make one as you did varying the gauge of wire to create the thickness desired…I have searched but just can’t find it nor do I recall the name of that rod… Thanks sharing all of your knowledge experience and insight!!!

[@zenmanproject]

To turn it into a AA form factor, I assume you would roll it up. Would it short circuit if you rolled it up? Would another piece of paper on top stop that from happening?

[@sumitm8904]

I tried to make the anode and cathode inks with the proportion given in the paper.I found out that the inks become very dense and have high viscosity. How can we make the inks less viscous?

[@chrisswhite77]

Dear Mr. Smith, i have seen that you use the extension cord fully on. I can ask you to take it all out because like this can be a problem, it is a coil on a(at least) 2000W consumer. I have burned one because of that.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

it's unlikely mate - very unlikely - I say this after 10 years of using it this way

[@GEOsustainable]

Yep, if this catches on, we will completely exhaust the element Zinc. Still a great experiment, but just as you said, this is nothing new. Where do we take this? The resulting battery size to compete with a AA would be as big as car to power that clock for a standard year. I am 1000% with you on the battery in the landfill problem. Oh, can you explain how zinc becomes biodegradable, please? I could make a fortune growing zinc.

[@angelusmendez5084]

Nice! 👏

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@e7yu]

This is, so informative. 🤔

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

cheers mate

[@firatriaulia6576]

Sorry, I want to ask. what can we use collector ink for and where to use it?

[@kurtandlazanneilander724]

i'm surprised your conductive ink didn't make an appearance

[@AdricM]

One could argue that paper batteries go all the way back tot he first ones. (well after the bagdad ones) The Volta Pile was paper between copper and zinc disks.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

I thought that too - but I thought I might be stretching it a bit there lol

[@andygozzo72]

@@ThinkingandTinkering many years ago when i was little i made 'batteries' from stacks of 2p coin-paper-10p coin, one on top of another, with salt water electrolyte 😉 powered leds ok, cant remember if i tried a small radio or not , with modern high brightness leds it'd be much better

[@deslomeslager]

Fantastic !

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

for sure

[@aserta]

I haven't bought disposable AA or AAA in ages. I use rechargeable ones and downgrade them as they grow old (ex: from flashlight to radio, from radio to remote etc), finally packing them up with other batteries to a send them once a few years to a local battery recycler handler.