lemon aid

[Manta]

I'm a bit confused about this lemon aid (or lemonade). Are you guys talking about the drink ? If so,  is it acid,  as suggested by the name ,  or alkali ?

Manta

(two nations separated by by a common language)

[Bob]

Yah its the Koolaid Lemonaid that ya buy in Walmart fer the kids to drink...
un sweetened... little packets.... I bought about 4 boxes for $15.00 I think it was...50 packs to a box....
...I am not sure but I think its citric acid that does the trick
...
Bob.......

[hg2]

 
 Bob you forgot to mention that the koolaid doesn't work well with dry cells.

[Manta]

So has anyone tried using other acids as electrolyte ?  I ask this because the more common electrolytes are alkali.

Manta

[hg2]

  Manta

  There have been many e-lytes tried that I've seen that include Magnesium hydroxide(milk of magnesia),    
Sodium Acetate,Potassium bicarbonate,Sodium Carbonate and even one guy trying urine(go figure).This is just the more common ones of many I've seen that have been tried,and all of them have drawbacks of some kind(especially the last one for obvious reasons).The only other acid based e-lytes I seen used is citric acid the type used for canning fruit and jelly.

  It all seems IMO to boil down to the best 2 e-lytes which are KOH and NaOH that work the best until someone can come up with something better,which to my knowledge hasn't happened yet.

  There is still the koolaid option but won't work at all in dry cell designs,this I've tried myself on my Tero cell.

[Bob]

Oh Contrair ! HG2 !  it will work in a Dry cell IF and only IF the plates are closely spaced togather AND you don't need to draw much amperage... <GRIN>
... In other words Koolaid is a very weak electrolyte even at Max Mixture approx 25 to 30 packets to a gallon of water... most I could ever draw was 20 amps useing Koolaid....Personally I think thats about the max anyone will ever get...because that was with "Randy Cells" and they don't need much to get them to draw amps.
....
but if your running a Tero cell or another type of dry cell chances are that Koolaid ain't going to work for ya ... its just too weak an electrolyte
 I have KOH and Koolaid both... right now sense I am trying to draw 30 amps I am useing KOH, but if I deside to drop down the amps I'll switch to Koolaid because it is so much cleaner...
GRANTED.... NEITHER Should be dirty.... but I have found with my setup that KOH turns to Dark coffee color in a short time...Lemonaide Koolaid doesn't do that....( or takes about 5 times as long to do it!)
...
fwiw...
Bob.......

[Manta]

Been talking to the lab rats about this.  They say that as Koolaid is citric acid it is an organic.  This means it will keep the gunge from your plates (that settles with NaOH etc) in suspension.  That is why the cell is cleaner. They couldn't think of any noxious gas that was produced along with the hydroxy.

Manta

[janmarsh]

Yet High Purity Citric Acid is said not to perform as well as Koolaid......... Strange.