Build a hydrogen fuel cell at home
1
A fuel cell is a device that converts a fuel such as hydrogen, alcohol, gasoline, or methane
into electricity directly. A hydrogen fuel cell produces electricity without any pollution, since
pure water is the only by-product. Hydrogen fuel cells are used in spacecraft and other hightech applications where a clean, efficient power source is needed.
5
You can make a hydrogen fuel cell in your kitchen in about 10 minutes, and demonstrate
how hydrogen and oxygen can combine to produce clean electrical power.
To make the fuel cell, you need the following:
- One foot of platinum coated nickel wire.
- A small piece of wood or plastic and some transparent sticky tape.
- A 9 volt battery and a 9 volt battery clip.
.
- A glass of water.
- A volt meter.
10
15
20
Set up the fuel cell as shown on the picture below.
To operate it, you need to cause bubbles of hydrogen to cling to one electrode, and bubbles
of oxygen to cling to the other. There is a very simple way to do this : touch the 9 volt battery
to the battery clip. It causes the water at the electrodes to split into hydrogen and oxygen, a
process called electrolysis. You can see the bubbles form at the electrodes while the battery
is attached.
Then remove the battery. If you were not using platinum coated wire, you would expect to
see the volt meter read zero volts again, since there is no battery connected. The platinum
acts as a catalyst, allowing the hydrogen and oxygen to recombine. The hydrolysis reaction
reverses. Instead of putting electricity into the cell to split the water, hydrogen and oxygen
combine to make water again, and produce electricity.
H2 (g) + 2 HO- (aq) = 2 H2O (l) + 2 e25
O2 (g) + 2 H2O (l) + 4 e- = 4 HO- (aq)
2 H2 (g) + O2 (g)  2 H2O (l)
From http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/echem/fuel_cell/fuel cell/fuel_cell.html
Introduce the documents, bring out their key ideas and enlarge upon the topics they deal
with (for example: cell and electrolyser, redox reactions, catalysts…)
ANG CHIRED 106741233
Page 1 sur 1