Fuel cells produce electrical energy by chemical reaction. While they can use such feeder fuels as alcohol, gasoline or methane, fuel cells used in spacecraft and other specialized applications use hydrogen to fuel the creation of electricity because it reacts with oxygen to produce water as a by-product. To understand how a fuel cell works, you can build a simple fuel cell with mostly common household materials. Here are the steps to build your own fuel cell.
Method 1 of 2: Building the Fuel Cell
1Cut two 6-inch (15-centimeter) strips of platinum or platinum-coated wire. You'll need to get this wire from an electronics supply store, as platinum isn't used for common wiring purposes.Ad
2Wind each wire strip around a thin metal rod to shape it into a spring. The two springs will serve as the fuel cell's electrodes.
- The shaping rod can be a nail, pick, wire coat hanger or lead on a battery tester.
3Cut the leads from a 9-volt battery clip in half. You can either buy a battery clip or get it from an old 9-volt transistor radio that no longer works.
4Strip the insulation off the cut leads.
5Attach the exposed wire ends to the electrode coils. Twist each of the battery clip leads around the end of one of the coils, leaving most of the coils free.
6Tape the electrodes to a stick or dowel. The electrodes should be sticking out, away from the stick.
7Lay the stick over the mouth of a glass of water. The coil electrodes should dangle into the water for most of their length, except where they're connected to the wires from the battery clip. Only the platinum should be submerged. If necessary, tape the stick in place so the electrodes stay in the water.
8Connect the wires coming from the electrodes to a voltmeter. The voltmeter is to show electric current created by the fuel cell once it's activated. Connect the red wire to the meter's positive terminal and the black wire to the negative terminal.
- You may see a small amount of voltage at this point, such as 0.01 volts, although the voltmeter should read zero at this point.
- You can also connect a small bulb, such as a flashlight bulb, or a light-emitting diode (LED).
Method 2 of 2: Activating the Fuel Cell
1Touch a 9-volt battery's terminals to the battery clip for one to two seconds. The battery is needed only to send an initial current through the wire to cause the hydrogen in the water molecules touching the electrodes to separate from the oxygen, forming bubbles around the electrodes. This process is called electrolysis, and the water serves as the electrolyte.
2Remove the battery. The separated hydrogen and oxygen will recombine into water, releasing the energy originally used to split them as electricity. The platinum in the electrode coils serves as a catalyst to speed the recombination of the hydrogen and oxygen into water molecules.
- Initially, the output may be as great as two volts, but will decline as the hydrogen bubbles dissipate, quickly at first and then gradually as the last of the bubbles pop. A light bulb or LED may appear bright initially, but will quickly dim and then gradually fade away.
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- Individual fuel cells produce only a small amount of electricity, much like the fuel cell described above. Commercially, many individual fuel cells are assembled into stacks, similar to the way Comte Alessandro Volta produced the first battery in 1800.
- Although this fuel cell used water as the electrolyte, commercial fuel cells use potassium hydroxide (the type used in the Apollo space program), phosphoric acid, molten sodium or magnesium carbonate at high temperature or special polymers. Efficiencies range from 40 to 80 percent, depending on the electrolyte used and the cell's construction.
- While operating this fuel cell, keep it away from open flames or heat sources. Although the amount of hydrogen produced is small, hydrogen is a highly combustible gas.
Things You'll Need
- Platinum wire or platinum-coated nickel wire
- Thin metal rod (nail, nut pick or similar)
- A small wooden or plastic dowel or popsicle stick
- 9-volt battery
- 9-volt battery clip
- Transparent tape
- Glass of water
- voltmeter (or flashlight bulb or LED)
In other languages:
Español: construir una celda de combustible, Italiano: Costruire una Pila a Combustibile, Português: Fazer uma Célula de Combustível, Русский: сделать топливный элемент, Deutsch: Deine eigene Brennstoffzelle basteln
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