Prepare the double salt patash alum and submit for inspection
Answers
Battery technology is one of the stumbling blocks on the way to introduction of more efficient electric cars and trucks, not to talk about storage of home-produced electricity from sun, wind or other intermittent renewable sources. While there are new kinds of batteries being developed (see the Battery Directory on PES Wiki), no cheap and easy solutions have entered the mainstream yet. Most cars are still using the type of battery developed by Frenchman Raymond Gaston Plante' about one-and-a-half centuries ago.There seems to be a way to convert an old, almost exhausted lead-acid battery into a functioning alkaline battery that is not widely known. The information was posted to the watercar yahoo group and through an unlikely chain of forwards reached me by email. Since this information is not widely known, I would like to make it available here.
If you decide to experiment with this, know that you alone are responsible for what you are doing. Don't do it unless you are technically savvy. Should you find it works and want to share your results, you can always comment at the end of this article, and if you feel like thanking the guy who put the information together, you can email him at tshell - at - mcdranch - dot - com.
Clean a small piece of scrap aluminum with steel wool and cut it into very small pieces. Aluminium foil may be taken instead of scrap aluminum.
Put the small pieces of scrap aluminum or aluminum foil (about 1.00g) into a conical flask and add about 50 ml of 4 M KOH solution to dissolve the aluminum.
The flask may be heated gently in order to facilitate dissolution. Since during this step hydrogen gas is evolved this step must be done in a well-ventilated area. Continue heating until all of the aluminum reacts.
Filter the solution to remove any insoluble impurities and reduce the volume to about 25 ml by heating.Allow the filtrate to cool. Now add slowly 6 M H2SO4 until insoluble Al(OH)3 just forms in the solution.
Gently heat the mixture until the Al(OH)3 precipitate dissolves. Cool the resulting solution in an ice-bath for about 30 minutes whereby alum crystals should separate out.
For better results, the solution may be left overnight for crystallization to continue. In case crystals do not form the solution may be further concentrated and cooled again.
Filter the crystals from the solution using a vacuum pump, wash the crystals with 50/50 ethanol-water mixture. Continue applying the vacuum until the crystals appear dry.
Hope this will help you.