How to Make a Hydrogen Fuel Cell
Hydrogen gas can be used as an alternative fuel source. The byproduct of the hydrogen fuel cell process is plain water, which is much more eco-friendly than petroleum byproducts. Although some hydrogen fuel cells are very complex, you can make a simple hydrogen fuel cell with a few household items.
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Things You'll Need
- Platinum wire
- Wire clippers
- Nail
- Battery clip (lead)
- Knife or scissors
- Battery that matches the battery lead
- Tape
Instructions
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1
Cut the platinum wire in half with the wire clippers.
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2
Make two coils from the platinum wires by wrapping each separately around the nail.
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3
Cut the wires on the battery lead three-quarters of the way from the lead connections.
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4
Using a knife or scissors, carefully cut away the insulation coating on the ends of the battery lead wires you just cut. You do not need to cut the insulation back very far.
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Wrap the bare ends of the lead wires around the ends of the coiled platinum wires. The coiled platinum will act as the electrodes of the fuel cell.
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6
Using tape, secure the wires attached to the platinum wire electrodes to the pencil about midway down so that the electrodes hang over the side.
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Balance the pencil on the rim of a glass of water so that the electrodes hang into the water--do not let the electrical wire get into the water; only the electrodes should touch the water. If your wires get too close to the water, empty a little water from the glass and try again.
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Touch the battery to the battery clip. You should see bubbles in the water. This means that the water molecules are being broken apart. Part of the result of this process is OH (hydroxide) ions.
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Take the battery away from the clip. When you do this, the platinum electrodes break the OH ions apart further to create hydrogen ions that have a positive charge. Electrons are freed in this process, and get pulled toward the negative electrode, since positive and negative charges attract, and the positive electrode gives up electrons to the oxygen molecules. The oxygen then recombines with the hydrogen ions to form water, while the freed electrons travel through the negative electrode as electrical energy. If you connect a voltage meter to the electrodes (in addition to the battery lead) with electrical wire, you could measure the electricity being produced. You can also test your device by hooking the electrodes up to any small electrical device, such as a digital clock. You can use the fuel cell to power anything you want as long as the voltage produced is high enough.
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Tips & Warnings
Hydrogen is a highly combustible gas. The fuel cell described above will not produce enough hydrogen to cause any type of injury or explosion, but in manufactured cells, which are larger and have a slightly different setup, combustion of the hydrogen can be dangerous. This is one of the reasons why the United States government has recently pulled all federal funding for hydrogen fuel cell technology. Additionally, producing the electricity for the electrolysis process described above, or for extracting hydrogen from other sources such as fossil fuels, actually is not very cost-efficient. This has led to a decline in hydrogen fuel funding and research, although many people still believe hydrogen to be a viable alternative to current fuels.
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Comments
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Science project night...yay! :-|
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once you made the cell you let the gas gointo your cars intake and use it as a fuel "additive" to increase your mileage.
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hallmanbilly, the purpose would be that when the hydrogen is burned up to create water once again, it will release large amounts of heat, which will expand the air inside the cylinder of a car making a piston turn a crankshaft that will run your car while the alternator takes advantage and recharges your battery, the energy would come from the consumption and production of water, through the separation of hydrogen from the oxygen in the cell and the union of that hydrogen to oxygen form the atmosphere, thus the water in the cell is consumed like gasoline, we will be taking advantage of the energy stored in the water, the potential energy in the water requires a small input of what we can call kinetic energy or a small amount of work on the system to release large amounts of potential energy we can use
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hallmanbilly
Aug 09, 2010
What would the purpose of the above project be?? You have a battery why not just use that? You wont produce any more energy than what you put in and maybe output less energy than what you put in. -
anshulbshah
Jul 15, 2010
Wanted to ask whether we can use any other metal except Platinum...?... i saw somewhere that carbon paper can be used.... but will it work?
