by Cryptonic26 » Thu Jan 05, 2006 8:20 am
In the spirit of furthering knowledge and education on this forum. I present this- The cannibals guide to scavenging what you need: A living resource.
Some of us don't have the money to buy large quantities of material, some of us just don't have access to the 'pure' stuff. others just simply don't know where to look. That's not really an excuse for not experimenting though, because there are TONS of pre-refined, pure, stock material for the taking out there in commercial product land. I propose that we all post a little bit about what we know, and what we find through experimentation/observation. Perhaps we can all benifit from this collective experience?
AlaskaStar reminded me that everything that we can touch should be treated as a potential resource. A used product is a new product, after all.
The idea is that we can all work together to develop A database of these common products, how to Identify what products hold valuable resources, and how to isolate those useful resources for our own devices.
I'll go first.
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Many of you probably already know this one, but for the sake of those who don't...
Most Alkaline batteries (AA, AAA, D, C, etc..) contain a carbon rod, wrapped in a pasty electrolyte.
The basic construction is a metal alloy tube, filled with a carbon rod surrounded by an Alkaline electrolyte. on the positive (+) end of this cylinder, you find a shiny cap. Sometimes you'll have to remove an outer layer of plastic wrap to see that it actually is a cap, but it's there.
You can remove the carbon rod by grabbing the end cap with a pair of plyers, and GENTLY pulling the rod out (the rod is glued to the cap). I stress gently, because these carbon rods are pretty fragile, they can be easily broken if you're too forceful. There is also a vacuum when you do this, so it may seem like it's stuck in there, just keep applying a gentle pull and it'll come out with a 'pop'. Be careful as this pop can be sudden, you don't want to get any Alkaline electrolyte anywhere near your eyes!!!
You should wash the electrolyte off the rod as best as possible before use. Since we know it's alkaline, vinegar may be used to neutralize it's basic properties. If someone could measure the PH of this stuff, we could find a better way to do this.
I have successfully used these carbon rods as electrodes in electrolysis. Though, some of them seem to be made with compressed carbon powder, bound with a glue. these are poor in quality, and will fall apart if your electrolyte is too strong. They are still usable, but be warned that they may contaminate your solution.
They may work well crushed as a semi-concentrated carbon powder.
Further research should be put into the electrolyte used inside these batteries. This may contain some valuable information and/or become a useful resource as you scavenge for cheap chemicals.
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Further research:
Platinum is a very useful material in electrochemistry, so be on the look out for new ways to get your hands on it.
Platinum can be obtained from some spark plugs!
Platinum is also present in catalytic converters found on your car, in the form of a plated screen mesh!
Perhaps we can isolate and smelt this stuff into larger ingots? just a thaught.