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--- michka:research:supercapacitors [2014-07-01 13:49] – michka
+++ michka:research:supercapacitors [2014-07-01 14:01] – michka
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 ====Home-Made Supercapacitors from Dead PC Batteries====
-This page reports the wonderful citizen science R&D workshop we had at FoAM with my dear friend [[http://www.zprod.org|Paul Granjon]], a world-reknown artist specialized in human-machine co-evolution and participatory upcycling workshops.
+This page reports the wonderful citizen science R&D workshop we had at FoAM with my dear friend [[http://www.zprod.org|Paul Granjon]], a world-reknown artist specialized in human-machine co-evolution and [[http://vimeo.com/30187028|participatory upcycling workshops]].
 During three day, we tried to upcycle dead PC batteries into working supercapacitors, originally to feed a self-watering system on [[michka/know-hows/bioproductive_balcony|FoAM's bioproductive balcony]].
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 Our best design was very simple. It was a sandwich design, which means that it was just a stack of dry material layers we taped all together. It contained three layers:
-   * A insulating material (plastic film) layer from a dead Toshiba battery - given away by [[http://hackerspace.be/|Hackerspace Brussels]], covered with graphene, a black powdery (or sometimes flaky) material
+   * An insulating material (plastic film) layer from a dead Toshiba battery - given away by [[http://hackerspace.be/|Hackerspace Brussels]], covered with graphene, a black powdery (or sometimes flaky) material
    * A cleaned up insulating material layer from the same dead Toshiba battery
    * A copper layer from the same dead Toshiba battery
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 This step of the process is, in my opinion, the most hazardous. If the battery is still a little bit charged, you will end up with heat and sparks. Gloves could be useful. Even when it is not, you will have a strange smell coming out: this is the electrolyte evaporating. As we do not really know what the electrolyte is made of, it may be smart to wear a mask.
-==Step 2 - Clean up==
+==Step 2 - Clean up the graphene from the copper layers & some insulating layers==
+Scrap with your nails or whatever soft tools which will not make holes in the plastic or copper layer.
+==Step 3 - Assemble the layers==
+   * Put the layer of insulating material coated with graphene at the bottom, with the graphene-coated side facing you.
+   * Tape a layer of cleaned-up insulating material on top of this one.
+   * Tape a layer of cleaned-up copper on top of the second one, making sure to avoid any copper to graphene contact.
+==Step 4 - Measure the initial voltage==
+Measure the voltage between the copper layer and the graphene layer. There was an initial voltage every time we assembled such a sandwich. This step allows you to see what the polarity of the design is and charge it adequately. Our negative pole was the graphene layer.
+==Step 5 - Charge it==
+Put the + of the power source on your + pole, and - on -. Check the current flow on your power source screen. We used small voltage to charge, from 1 V to 5 V. Start small.
+==Step 6 - Measure the charge==
+Once the current is back to 0 A and stable, measure the voltage between the copper layer and the graphene layer.
+==Step 7 - Test it==
+You can tape several of these and connect them in series by soldering contacts from one to another. For graphene contacts, we used a small bit of copper that we taped and tried to maintain with pressure against graphene.
+Once you reach a sufficiently interesting voltage, try to connect a LED and see what happens.
 ====Information Sources====