This is what I'm worried about
@John, Chuck,& All
I remembered a video that was done a ways back where you showed what happened to a cell when the sodium silicate absorbed too much water from the air. The "crystal" just turned into mush. Not so good.
Results of hutchison cell with water glass 081111.wmv - YouTube
Your specification of just "two pinches" of the sodium silicate seems to work in the new Hydrate mix. I'm a little worried about too much air humidity now OVER hydrating the cell. Where I live at the beach humidity is pretty high most of the time. If the water content gets too high in the cell it might be like just putting the two electrodes in a glass of water. We all know what that means. Hello Mr. Luigi Galvani.
@IB and Plengo
The "paper" issue is something that I'm interested in now. My replication of John's Hydrate cell used a piece of blue shop towel instead of kitchen paper towel. That stuff is much stronger and I think has cloth fiber in it. Yesterday I carefully removed my Hydrate "test" cell from the plastic piece it was made in and glued it to a piece of note pad paper. I used Elmer's Glue All and now it is a hybrid between IB's glue battery and John's Hydrate. Heat still activates it. I must have used less water glass than was called for because that cell is rock hard. If the cell stops working I will try to revive it with a drop of water.
Lidmotor
@John, Chuck,& All
I remembered a video that was done a ways back where you showed what happened to a cell when the sodium silicate absorbed too much water from the air. The "crystal" just turned into mush. Not so good.
Results of hutchison cell with water glass 081111.wmv - YouTube
Your specification of just "two pinches" of the sodium silicate seems to work in the new Hydrate mix. I'm a little worried about too much air humidity now OVER hydrating the cell. Where I live at the beach humidity is pretty high most of the time. If the water content gets too high in the cell it might be like just putting the two electrodes in a glass of water. We all know what that means. Hello Mr. Luigi Galvani.
@IB and Plengo
The "paper" issue is something that I'm interested in now. My replication of John's Hydrate cell used a piece of blue shop towel instead of kitchen paper towel. That stuff is much stronger and I think has cloth fiber in it. Yesterday I carefully removed my Hydrate "test" cell from the plastic piece it was made in and glued it to a piece of note pad paper. I used Elmer's Glue All and now it is a hybrid between IB's glue battery and John's Hydrate. Heat still activates it. I must have used less water glass than was called for because that cell is rock hard. If the cell stops working I will try to revive it with a drop of water.
Lidmotor
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