How to Make a Supercapacitor with Aluminum Foil (Step by Step, Each Detail) 500 F
Summary
TLDRThis video tutorial demonstrates the process of creating a homemade supercapacitor using aluminum foil, activated carbon, and a surfactant-enhanced electrolyte. The host shares practical tips, such as surface preparation of the aluminum foil and the importance of using a binder to improve conductivity. The video also addresses common issues with electrolyte absorption and offers a solution using acetonitrile. The result is a high-capacity supercapacitor capable of powering a DC motor, showcasing its strength through short-circuit tests.
Takeaways
- đ The video demonstrates how to create a homemade supercapacitor using aluminum foil as an alternative to copper foil.
- đ Three key components for making a supercapacitor are identified: electrolyte, current collector, and active material.
- đ ïž The aluminum foil used should be 50 microns thick and not the thin kitchen foil to ensure effectiveness.
- đ The aluminum foil is cut into specific dimensions and the surface is sanded to improve the adherence of the active material.
- đ§Œ Cleaning the aluminum foil with a wet paper towel is crucial to remove aluminum particles before the application of the active material.
- đ The active material is prepared by mixing activated carbon with ultrafine graphite powder and deionized water, then binding with white glue.
- đïž A hand blender is used to mix the active material thoroughly, which is then painted onto the aluminum foil electrodes.
- đ A post machine paper is used as a separator between the electrodes, which is more durable than regular paper.
- đ§ The electrolyte is made from sodium sulfate dissolved in deionized or distilled water, with a surfactant added to reduce surface tension.
- đ The supercapacitor is assembled in a plastic container and soaked with the electrolyte, requiring a waiting period for full absorption.
- â±ïž The supercapacitor is charged at 1 amp for approximately 10 minutes, suggesting a capacitance of 500 farads, and then tested for voltage and discharge capability.
Q & A
What is the main purpose of the video?
-The main purpose of the video is to demonstrate how to create a homemade supercapacitor using aluminum foil, following a practical method that is close to commercial supercapacitors.
Why is aluminum foil preferred over kitchen foil for making a supercapacitor?
-Aluminum foil is preferred because it is thicker (50 microns) and more suitable for the project, while kitchen foil is very thin and may not work well for creating a supercapacitor.
What are the three important components of a supercapacitor mentioned in the video?
-The three important components of a supercapacitor are the electrolyte, the current collector, and the active material that is used to paint the current collector.
Why is it necessary to roughen the surface of the aluminum foil before applying the active material?
-Roughening the surface of the aluminum foil helps the active material to adhere better, resulting in lower internal resistance and higher conductivity of the supercapacitor.
What is the role of graphite powder in the active material mixture?
-Graphite powder is added to the activated carbon to improve its conductivity, as activated carbon alone does not have very good conductivity.
Why is a binder like white glue used in the active material mixture?
-A binder like white glue is used to help the active material adhere to the aluminum foil and to maintain its structure during the supercapacitor's operation.
How long should the active material be mixed with a blender for optimal results?
-The active material should be mixed with a blender for about 10 to 15 minutes at high speed to ensure a thorough and even mixture.
What is the importance of pressing the activated carbon material onto the aluminum foil?
-Pressing the activated carbon material onto the aluminum foil ensures better conductivity by compacting the layer and improving contact between the material and the foil.
Why is a separator used between the electrodes in the supercapacitor?
-A separator is used to prevent the electrodes from short-circuiting while allowing ions to move between them, which is essential for the supercapacitor's function.
What is the electrolyte used in the supercapacitor and how is its surface tension reduced?
-Sodium sulfate in deionized or distilled water is used as the electrolyte. The surface tension is reduced by adding a surfactant such as acetone, which allows the electrolyte to be absorbed by the supercapacitor.
How can you estimate the capacitance of the supercapacitor after charging it for a certain time?
-If the supercapacitor reaches 1.2 to 1.3 volts after being charged at 1 amp for about 10 minutes, it can be estimated to have a capacitance of approximately 500 farads.
What test is performed at the end of the video to demonstrate the supercapacitor's strength?
-A short-circuit test and running a DC motor with the supercapacitor are performed to demonstrate its strength and energy storage capability.
Outlines
đ Introduction and Preparation for Aluminum Foil Super Capacitor
The host welcomes viewers and introduces the concept of making a super capacitor using aluminum foil due to the difficulty of finding copper foil. They highlight three key components needed: electrolyte, current collector, and active material. The compatibility of these elements is crucial for a successful super capacitor. The host also explains the importance of preparing the aluminum foil by cutting it to specific dimensions and etching its surface with sandpaper for better adhesion of the active material.
âïž Cutting and Preparing Aluminum Foil Terminals
The host demonstrates cutting the aluminum foil into two pieces and explains the importance of leaving parts for the terminals of the super capacitor. These terminals are folded to make them thicker and more durable. The host emphasizes the necessity of cleaning the etched foil with a wet paper towel to remove residues, ensuring better conductivity and lower internal resistance.
âïž Creating the Active Material for the Super Capacitor
The host prepares the active material by mixing activated carbon with ultra-fine graphite powder to enhance conductivity. Deionized water is added, followed by regular white glue as a binder. The mixture is thoroughly stirred and then blended for better consistency. The host then applies this active material to both sides of the aluminum foil using a brush, ensuring an even, thin layer to maximize conductivity.
𧎠Preparing and Applying the Electrolyte
The host explains how to prepare the electrolyte using sodium sulfate and deionized water. They highlight a critical point often missed in other tutorials: breaking down the surface tension of the electrolyte using a surfactant like acetone, methanol, ethanol, or dish detergent. This ensures that the electrolyte soaks into the active material properly. The host demonstrates adding the prepared electrolyte to the super capacitor and suggests waiting a few days for complete absorption.
đ Sealing and Testing the Super Capacitor
The host completes the super capacitor by sealing it with hot glue and preparing it for testing. They explain how to charge the super capacitor using a charger and then test its voltage. The host demonstrates the strength of the super capacitor by short-circuiting it with a copper wire and running a DC motor. The video concludes with the host encouraging viewers to subscribe and like the video.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄSupercapacitor
đĄAluminum Foil
đĄElectrolyte
đĄCurrent Collector
đĄActive Material
đĄActivated Carbon
đĄGraphite Powder
đĄSeparator
đĄSurfactant
đĄCharge and Discharge
đĄDC Motor
Highlights
Introduction to making a supercapacitor using aluminum foil as an alternative to copper foil.
Three important components of a supercapacitor: electrolyte, current collector, and active material.
Importance of compatibility among the components for efficient supercapacitor performance.
Practical method to combine elements for a supercapacitor resembling commercial ones.
Preparation of the current collector using 50-micron thick aluminum foil.
Warning against using thin kitchen foil for supercapacitor construction.
Technique to etch the surface of aluminum foil for better adhesion of active material.
Cleaning the aluminum foil to remove aluminum particles after etching.
Cutting and folding aluminum foil to create terminals for the supercapacitor.
Preparation of the active material mixture with activated carbon and graphite powder.
Use of deionized water and a binder (white glue) in the active material mixture.
Mixing the active material thoroughly with a hand blender for even consistency.
Applying the active material evenly on both sides of the aluminum foil electrodes.
Pressing the active material onto the aluminum foil for improved conductivity.
Assembling the supercapacitor with separators made from post machine paper.
Explanation of the electrolyte preparation using sodium sulfate and water.
The critical role of a surfactant to break down water surface tension for electrolyte absorption.
Demonstration of the supercapacitor's absorption of the electrolyte with the surfactant.
Recommendation to wait for the supercapacitor to soak the electrolyte for optimal performance.
Sealing the supercapacitor with hot glue to ensure no leakage.
Charging the supercapacitor and estimating its capacitance based on charging time and voltage.
Testing the supercapacitor by short-circuiting and running a DC motor.
Conclusion and invitation to subscribe for more DIY electronics projects.
Transcripts
hello my friends welcome to my channel
and I hope you're all fine in today's
video I'm going to make a super
capacitor by using aluminum foil in the
previous video I made a super capacitor
by using copper foil and a lot of people
asked me that told me that uh copper
foil is very difficult to find so could
you make a super capacit by using
aluminum foil so in today's video I'm
going to make a super capacit by using
aluminum foil after that time since that
time I made a lot of experiments on
super Capac and I find some diff some
practical ways to make a super capacitor
by using aluminum foil so before get
started video I want to tell you uh some
important points about super capacitors
if you want to make a super capacitors
there are three important points the
first one is electrolyte the second one
is current collector and the third one
is active material that you are going to
use to paint your um current collector
and also the compatibility of these uh
three elements is are very very
important so I as I said said I find a
very practical way to uh combine these
two uh elements to make a super
capacitor so the super capacitor that we
are going to make in this video will be
very nice very beautiful very close to
commercial super capacitor so let's
start first of all uh we need to prepare
our curent collector for Cur collector
as I said I'm going to use this um
aluminum foil this aluminum foil is uh
50 microns thick uh if you're if you
want to use uh kitchen foil I don't
recommend you to use uh kitchen foil
because kitchen foil is very very thin
it will not work uh very well so instead
of kitchen foil I recommend you to use
uh these kinds of uh aluminum foil as I
said it is uh 50 microns thick and 20 uh
12
CM and I will just cut
um um six 60 cm to 12 CM and I will
divide it into two pieces so I will have
two pieces of 60 uh cm long and 6 cm in
length uh aluminum foil and I will atch
the surface of the aluminum foil so
let's cut our aluminum foil to make our
super
p
okay before divided uh this aluminum
foil into two pieces I need to atch the
surface of the aluminum foil I'm going
to use sandp paper to atch the surface
of the foil some people ask me that why
we need to Ash the surface of the
aluminum foil uh if you don't Ash the
surface when you paint your AC material
uh on the aluminum foil it will not not
stick very well if you add the surface
of the foil the active material is stick
very very well and uh the internal
resistance of the super capacitor will
be very very low the conductivity will
be very high so I'm going to use the
Sandpaper and Ash the surface of the
aluminum foil after that I will divide
it into two pieces my aluminum
foil
okay my friends after Ash the surface
after aluminum foil with the help of a
wet uh paper toel I will clean the uh
aluminum foil because I need to remove
the residues of the um aluminum
particles just clean
it after you clean the aluminum foil I
will let it to
dry you
see I need to clean these particles
these
[Music]
residues
okay my friends after clean and dry now
I will divide it the aluminum foil into
two pieces look at very carefully how I
will divide it it's very
important at this point is very
important I I will leave some part of
aluminum foil to make uh for the
terminal of my super
capacitor part
here
and some part
[Music]
here now when I cut uh the aluminum foil
into two pieces I won't cut these small
parts my
[Music]
friends
just watch
carefully you see my friends these parts
will be our terminal for my for our
super capacitor so it's very important
point now I
will
fold these parts to make it
thicker okay just fold another
[Music]
time you see my friends we have
terminals for the
faster now I will do the same thing for
the other
one okay my friends our Cur collectors
are ready now we are going to make our
active material for our super capacitor
I will show you how how we will make our
active
material okay my friends now we can
prepare our active material to prepare
our active material I have a glass here
I'm going to use this glass and I will
put about 20 G of activated carbon into
the
[Music]
glass
and I'm going to put about four or five
G of
um graphite powder ultra fine graphite
powder why we use graphite powder
because the conductivity of activated
carb is not very good and when we add
some graphite powder ultrafine graphite
powder into the activated carbon the
conductivity of our Super Capacity will
be
[Music]
increased you don't have to add too much
[Music]
okay that's enough my
friends now I'm going to use uh
deionized water I will just add about 30
or 50 uh milliters of deionized
[Music]
water okay now let's put this
away and I will stir it very
[Music]
well if you need you can add some more
water
[Music]
[Music]
now I need a binder as a binder I'm
going to use regular white
glue and I will just put about uh two or
three G not too
much okay just put two or three
G okay I think that's
enough now I will stir again and I have
to stir it very very well my friends do
you see the
[Music]
form mix it very very
well
now my friends to mix it better I'm
going to use my hand blender and I will
just mix it with uh the blender for this
I'm going to use my uh homemade
battery I recommend you to mix the Lowry
with your blender for about 10 or 15
minutes with a very high
speed
okay my friends after mixing the active
material very well for about 10 or 15
minutes I'm going to use a brush to
paint my aluminum foil now I will just
paint both sides of the plates of the
electrodes and I will let them to dry
after they completely dry we will
continue to make our super Capac now I'm
going to just paint the aluminum foils
the
electrodes when you paint the electrod
be careful about these points try to
paint them evenly as much as possible
and make the layer um very very thin not
uh thick because the conductivity uh
will be increased if the layer uh active
material layer is thick the conductive
will be increased so uh the active
material layer should be thin as much as
possible
okay my friends our electrodes are
completely dried before move on the next
step I need to press the activated
carbon active material on the aluminum
foil in order to having a better
conductivity so I'm going to use this um
plastic bottle and just rolled on them
pressed active material in order to
having good uh conductivity okay this is
a very important process don't uh push
very very hard but uh slowly and after
that you can push harder to press the
active material uh on the
electrodes
okay after this process now I'm going to
use two pieces of separator and just
roll the electrodes uh to make sure you
see the whole things everything I will
just uh zoom out the camera and show you
everything um in detailed okay my
friends as a separator I am going to use
a post machine paper in our previous
video I just used regular paper but for
this project I'm going to use uh post
machine paper this is better than the
other one because uh it is very durable
material uh to the electroly so if you
use uh post machine paper you will get
better
result
put the second foil just a little bit
further than the other one my friends
it's very
important okay be careful everything
should be overlap each
[Music]
other
that
[Music]
[Music]
okay my friends our super capacitor is
almost ready now I will put it into this
plastic to plastic container just like
this as you see it just fit inside it
very well now it's time to prepare our
electrolyte and complete our super
capacitor now I will show you how you
can prepare your electrolyte okay my
friend as an electrolyte I'm going to
use sodium sulfate and um deionized
water or distilled water you can use
either deionized or distilled water I
have a glass here I just put uh some
deionized water inside it and just add
some um sodium sulfate inside
it okay just add
some uh sodium sulfate inside the the
IED
water the uh marity should be one mol
sodium sulfate into the onized water so
I will just add some
more
okay and shake it very
[Music]
well
is our electrolyte almost ready but
there is a very critical point here in
most of the videos nobody tell you this
secret if you directly use this
electrolyte in your super capacitor the
result will be like this your superer
will not work why because uh the surface
tension of the water when you put sodium
sulfate uh the S uh the surface tension
of the water will increase and it will
not soaked by the super capacitor so
your super capacitor doesn't uh will not
work so uh I will show you what I mean
now I have a piece of aluminum foil and
just uh paint with activated carbon with
the same uh active material in our super
capacitor now I will just drop one drop
of electrolyte onto it and we will see
what I mean
okay if you directly add the electrolyte
onto the active
material you see what happened my
friends the electrolyte just stay on the
top of the active material it's not it's
not uh soaked by the uh active material
so if you directly use your electrolyte
the result will just like this and your
super capacitor will not work so how it
will solve this problem almost in all
videos they just said uh use waterbased
sodium sulfate but just a moment ago as
I showed you if you use uh sodium
waterbased sodium sulfate your super
capacity will not work so how we will uh
solve this problem don't worry too much
my friend there's a very uh practical
very easy way to solve this problem we
need to use use a surfactant to uh break
down the surface tension of the water so
what kind of materials you can use as a
surfactant you can use methanol or
ethanol or aceton nutral but if you have
none of them you can also use a dish
detergent or dis stove it will just
break down the surface tension of the
water and you can use uh this
electrolyte for your super capacitor
with peace of mind as I have aceton
nutral here for this project I am I'm
going to just add a little bit aceton
nutral inside it but as I said you can
also use antinol or methanol or dish
detergent it doesn't matter my friends
don't put too much just um add a little
bit you see about uh 1 mgram or maybe
less okay
shake it
again now our electrolyte is ready to
add it to our super capacitor I will
just add uh with the help of my
injection
add
slowly can you see my friends the super
capacitor soaked the electrolyte because
of the aceton Neal we use the surfactant
if directly we put it the electrolyte it
it wouldn't uh work my
friends but now it's work very
well
okay some
more can you see the B bubles it means
the super capacitor soaked the
electrolyte okay my friends my
recommendation to you to wait for about
1 or two days uh because our super
capacitor should soak the electrolyte
completely and after one or two days or
maybe four or 5 days your super
capacitor will work very very
efficiently after half an hour you see
most of the electrolytes soaked by the
super capacitor and your super capacitor
is ready to use uh I will wait for about
a few days and after that I will charge
and um discharge my super capacitor okay
my friends after a few days our super
capacity is ready to use it soaked the
whole electrolyte inside it now I will
close um with this lid and sealed it
very well and after that we will make we
will charge our super capacitor and make
some test on it's
okay
I'm going to use my hot glue to seal
it sealed it very well my
friends
okay I will wait until uh my hot glue is
dried and after that I will charge my
super capacitor and make some test on
it okay my friends now I am going to
charge my super capacitor I have my
charger here and I will connect my super
capacitor to the charger and
uh I will charge my super capacitor with
1 amp in about 10 minutes uh because I
think my super capacity is 500 F so some
people ask me that how you can uh
measure the capacitor of your super
capacitor if your capacitor is one b 1.2
volt or 1.3 volt and if you charge it
with 1 amp about 10 minutes it means
that your super capacitor is 500 fad so
uh I'm just going to charge my super
Capac with 1 amp about um 10 minutes my
friends
okay okay I fully charged my stripper
capacity now I'm am going to test my
super capacitor my
friends now let's put it away and
measure the voltage inside
it just uh my multimeter here I'm just
going to measure the voltage inside
it uh as you see my friends you have
1.35 uh volts inside the SP P there look
again 1 35 okay now I will just uh make
other test on this super capacitor I
will just short circuit it and try to
run a DC motor with my super capacitor
okay my friends first of all let's short
circuit our super capacitor I have a
piece of um Cooper wire here I will just
short circuit
it
wow
oh I have just um another one it's a
little bit thicker
just um short circuit
it
ow just short circuit this
one
it's really pretty strong SP Buster
right my friends it's pretty strong one
more
time
oh ah maybe you remember our previous
capacitor uh wasn't as much as strong
but this one is uh very strong very
strong super capacitor um so now I will
try to uh run this DC motor uh with the
super
capacitor okay you see that how strong
it
[Music]
is wow that's pretty
cool okay my friends we get the end of
our video I hope you enjoyed the video
we have a very nice very beautiful uh
homemade super capacitor here you can
easily do this super capacity at your
home I hope you enjoyed the video If you
enjoyed the video please subscribe my
channel and like the video take care of
yourself my friends see you in the next
videos
Voir Plus de Vidéos Connexes
What is Supercapacitor| How supercapacitor works| Supercapacitor in Electric Vehicles
Como fazer MĂQUINA DE CHOQUES com forma de pizza
Dari barang bekas bisa buat baterai magnesium 3 kali lebih kuat dari baterai air garam
Get the Most Aluminum From Melting Cans
MEMBUAT ALARM BANJIR SEDERHANA
Thickness of Aluminum Foil Lab - Background
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)