White Yeti - 18-9-2011 at 07:45
Hello everyone.
I've been making aluminium based batteries for a while now and I am currently working on a battery design that uses a strong oxidizing agent instead
of air. So doing a quick search, I compiled a list of oxidizers that might be suitable for use in aluminium batteries. The first on my list was
potassium permanganate which seems very promising as an oxidizer in a battery. I got the redox chemistry mostly figured out and it seems like an
aluminium-KMnO4 battery would pack quite a punch in a small package.
Here's the anode half reaction:
Al + 3OH- ----> Al(OH)3 + 3e- +1.66V
Then I thought of another oxidizer I could use. I know all of you are familiar with it, NaClO3. I don't care about the cation, so its potassium
counterpart would also work. I found a half reaction that uses the chlorate anion:
ClO3- + 2H+ + e- ---->ClO2(g) +H2O +1.18V
The problem here is the evolution of chlorine dioxide gas. Another reaction takes care of this problem:
ClO2 + H+ + e- ----> HClO2 +1.19V
But chlorine dioxide is poorly soluble in water. It would take a really long time for the ClO2 to diffuse into the water and react with electrons at
the cathode. So here's my question, what can I bubble this gas through, to obtain chlorous acid quickly? I was thinking about bubbling this gas
through a solution of HCl and FeII, but I'm not sure if this will work. My goal here is to convert the chlorine dioxide rapidly into chlorous acid so
that it can participate in the following reaction to generate even more electricity:
HClO2 + 2H+ +2e- ----> HClO+ H2O +1.67V
Any ideas?