Hydrogen and oxygen produced by electrolysis react in the fuel cell to create electricity.

In practice a motor
could be temporarily reversed to generate current for electrolysis, eliminating batteries.

in it, and attempts are

Build Your Own Working Model being made to build
fuel cells which will
produce enough power

Ion-Exchange Fuel Cell per unit volume to

make them practical.
Basically, a fuel cell
is an electrochemical
device for conversion
One of these power supply units of the future of chemical energy in-
makes an excellent science fair project to electrical energy.
The principle of opera-
tion is generally the
By ELTON J. CAIRNS same as an ordinary
flashlight or automo-
T ITS present stage of development, the bile battery, except that the fuel and oxidant
A fuel cell is a highly efficient, compact are supplied from outside of the cell while
power unit that produces no toxic ex- it is operating.
haust fumes, high temperatures, high pres- You can build a fuel cell and a hydrogen-
sures or noise. In special cases, it can be oxygen generator (Fig. 1) from about $10
used to manufacture its own fuel and oxi- worth of materials that will demonstrate this
dant; usually hydrogen and oxygen. principle and serve as a model for future
Since these attributes are just those being experiments. Remember that the fuel cell is
sought in power plants for long-distance sub- not a toy, but a device with tremendous po-
marines and space ships, it is not surprising tential for experimental improvement. As
that the fuel cell has attracted the attention such, it involves working with hydrogen,
of today's engineers and scientists. oxygen and corrosive solutions. These de-
The fuel cell itself is not a new concept; mand use of ordinary laboratory precautions,
the first one was constructed in 1839 by W. such as careful handling of the liquids and
R. Grove. Now, however, the growing de- avoidance of open flames in the area while
mand for a power plant with the characteris- hydrogen is being produced or used.
tics of the fuel cell has created new interest Make the Fuel-Cell Casing from two 1/8 x

106 SCIENCE AND MECHANICS

3-1/8"x3-1/8" pieces of
plastic. Lay out the
eight 1/8-in. holes (Fig.
2A) and tape the
pieces together, drill-
ing t h r o u g h both
sheets at the same
time. Temporarily in-
sert three or four bolts
and saw the 3-in. dia.
casing from the sheets.
Using one of the cell
casings as a template,
lay out the six bolt
holes on two pieces of
1/16-in. rubber gasket
material. Punch the
holes and cut a l-1/2in.
opening (Fig. 2B) in
the center of each gas-
ket. Save six of the
1/8-in. slugs punched
from the gaskets to be
used as spacers when
assembling the casing.
Cut the electrodes
(Fig. 2C) from 100-150
mesh nickel screen,
providing 1/4xl-in.
tabs to be used as ter-
minals. The nickel
electrodes are given a
coating of -platinum-
black which serves as
a catalyst to speed up
the reaction of hydro-
gen and oxygen at
room t e m p e r a t u r e s .
Remove all grease and
oil from the screens
with d r y cleaning
fluid, dry them thor-
oughly, and place
them in a 5% platinic
chloride solution until
they have become
blackened (about 20
minutes). Take them
from the solution with
a tweezers, rinse with
water and dry be-
tween blotters.
Cut a 2-in. disc from
a sheet of anion ex-
change resin or What-
man #50 filter paper.
This disc will serve to store the electrolyte sorbed as much of the electrolyte as possible,
and must be soaked in it before assembly. take it from the solution and remove the ex-
The electrolyte is made of 30 grams of potas- cess liquid with a blotter, leaving the disc
sium hydroxide in 100 cc of water. Add the damp, but not wet.
hydroxide to the water slowly to prevent To Assemble the Cell (Fig. 3), place a gas-
dangerous overheating. Handle the solution ket and three of the spacers on one of the cas-
carefully as it is harmful to your skin and ing-halves. Place one of the electrodes on
highly corrosive on material other than plas- top of the plugs with the tab extending be-
tic, rubber or glass. When the disc has ab- yond the edge of the case. Cover the elec-

DECEMBER, 1960 107

 1/2 x 5 x 12-in. board to which you have at-
tached a miniature toggle switch with four
6-in. leads and alligator clips. Drill holes in
the board in which the cell and test loads,
such as a motor, lights or a meter, can be
placed. Mount the cell by bending a stiff
copper wire around the ends of the screws
and forming a leg to fit in the test stand
(Fig. 3).
A Generator to manufacture oxygen and
hydrogen is made by using an electrolysis
setup (Fig. 4) with potassium hydroxide as
the electrolyte and nickel screens as elec-
trodes. Fill a 5in. deep pyrex pan 3/4 full of
a 10% solution of potassium hy-
droxide (1/2 lb. of hydroxide to 1/2
gallon water). Fill two small bot-
tles with the solution and place
them upside down in a support in
the liquid with no air in the bot-
tles. Clamp one end of two 3-ft.
pieces of 1/8-in. plastic tubing and
place the other ends well up into
each of the bottles. Connect two
3-ft. insulated copper wires to 1 x
2-in. nickel screen electrodes and
place one of the electrodes just
r

Rubber respirator bags filled w i t h purchased h y d r o g e n a n d o x y g e n

run Arisfo-Rev midget motor a n d 6-in. propeller for several hours.

trode with the disc containing the electrolyte

and place the second electrode on this. Be
sure the electrodes do not touch each other
by arranging the tabs so one is on each side
of the vent ports. Now place the remaining
gasket, spacers, and casing-half on top, line
up the bolt holes and ports, and fasten the
cell together with 10-32 x 3/4-in. bolts and
nuts. Do not fasten the nuts so tightly as to
force the gasket beyond the edge of the case.
Glue 1/8-in. o.d. metal or rigid plastic pipes in
the intake and vent ports so the feed tubes
can be slipped over them.
Now make a testing stand (Fig. 1) from a

108 SCIENCE AND MECHANICS

inside of the mouth of each bottle.
Then connect the wire to two or
three 1.5V series wired, dry cells.
Gas will immediately begin to col-
lect in the bottles; hydrogen at the
negative electrode and oxygen at
the positive. (Caution: hydrogen
is combustible. Keep flame away
while the generator is operating.)
Allow gas to collect until the oxy-
gen, which is generated only half
as fast as the hydrogen, has forced
the liquid level in the bottle be-
low that in the pan. Now loosen
the tube clamps to bleed the
liquid from the gas feed tubes, re-
clamp them, and attach one to
each intake pipe.
Attach a length of tubing to
each vent pipe with the other ends
of the tubes in a bottle of water
(Fig. 1). Open the clamps on the
feed tubes to allow gas to reach the cell and (H), which have been formed from hydrogen
then lift the vent tubes to the surface of the gas (H 2 ) on the opposite electrode (anode),
water, bleeding the air which has been to form water again. The anode receives
trapped in the cell during assembly. As soon electrons in the process, and when a load cir-
as the cell begins to produce current, as cuit is connected between the electrodes, elec-
shown by the action of a motor or ammeter, trons will flow to the cathode from the nega-
replace the tube ends in the water to prevent tively charged anode.
loss of fuel. A Fuel Cell Test Circuit is set up by wiring
Principle of Operation. As the oxygen an ammeter and a variable resistor parallel
(O 2 ) enters the cell, it is adsorbed by the to a voltmeter (Fig. 7). The output of the
electrode (cathode) on its side (Fig. 6) and, cell can be plotted on a graph to show its per-
aided by the platinum-black catalyst, is split formance. Various electrolytes (sodium hy-
into oxygen atoms (O). These atoms react droxide is a good substitute), electrodes and
with the water molecules in the electrolyte catalysts (finely divided nickel, platinum, or
(KOH + H 2 O) a n d p r o d u c e n e g a t i v e l y carbon) may be tested. Fig. 8 shows the per-
charged hydroxyl (OH~) ions. In this process formance curve of the cell described here.
the cathode becomes positively charged by a By observing the elementary rules of elec-
loss of electrons. tricity, experiments can be conducted with
The hydroxyl ions migrate through the several fuel cells wired either in parallel or
electrolyte and react with hydrogen atoms in series.

Timing Tape Recordings

• If your tape re-
corder has no provi-
sion for timing reels
of recording tape, you
can do this easily by
means of a strip of
masking tape placed
near the spindle. Start
a recording running through the machine,
and mark the masking tape with a pencil at
five-minute intervals, in alignment with the
amount of the tape on the reel. Then remove
the strip of tape and type in the numbers of
minutes as shown. Be sure to replace the
masking tape in exactly the same position or Squeeze Bottle Dusts Capacitor
the markings may prove inaccurate. Place a • An empty plastic squeeze bottle makes a
similar marking tape arrangement near the handy air-gun for blowing the plates of a
other spindle.—JOHN A. COMSTOCK. variable capacitor clean.—JOHN A. COMSTOCK.

DECEMBER, 1960 109