I just posted this on finishing.com and thought some here might be interested. I may have already discussed this. A question from a student was asked, "Why can't we store electricity in water." Since I had an experience of attempting that very thing, here was my answer:
"Many years ago, in the late 70s, I did a lot of experimenting (daily, for about a year) with anodic and cathodic ion-exchange membranes, sometimes called ion traffic controllers by the laity. I arranged several small, clear, plastic tanks (square, hard, transparent, styrene boxes about 2" X 2" X 2" high, about 100ml, or so, each), containing various solutions, in a line, each separated by membranes, with electrodes at the ends. My object in one experiment was to set the positive and negative ions in one of the cells out of balance, to produce an over-abundance of either positive or negative ions so that the solution in that cell would have an over-all positive or negative charge. My idea was to be able to store whatever energy this imbalance would produce. Ultimately, I wondered what would happen if one combined a positive ion rich solution with a negative ion rich solution. Would energy be released?
The experiment worked, as far as my setup being able to produce this ion imbalance. However, nature would not allow this to happen. To make up for the charge deficit in the cell, it automatically split water off one of the membrane surfaces in that particular cell, continually. I could visually see it happening as bubbles (H2 or O2) coming off of a single point on the membrane. If I was producing more positive than negative ions, water split and gave off H2 gas and OH- ions, to make up for the deficit. If the solution were negative ion rich, the water split to give off O2 gas and H+ ions. In other words, I could not store energy in a solution, at least not in the way I was trying to do it. If it had worked, I might have blown up the lab. It was a complete surprise, but a joy, the way the Creation prevented me from doing it."
I did all these experiments by cutting out rectangular windows in square styrene boxes with a Dremel. I then put a layer of teflon lab grease on the outside of the boxes around the windows. I then placed membranes that were larger than the windows on the grease and held several of these boxes together, in a line, with long rubber bands. The most boxes I used in a line was 7, with a membrane between each 2. The "cells" contained various solutions, usually dissolved metal salts. In the 2 end cells, I used various metals as electrodes, depending on the experiment. I'm thinking I used a 10A, 15V rectifier to drive it. Before and after an experiment, I analyzed the solutions in the cells with a AA. Very interesting stuff, I thought. I really got into it.
"Many years ago, in the late 70s, I did a lot of experimenting (daily, for about a year) with anodic and cathodic ion-exchange membranes, sometimes called ion traffic controllers by the laity. I arranged several small, clear, plastic tanks (square, hard, transparent, styrene boxes about 2" X 2" X 2" high, about 100ml, or so, each), containing various solutions, in a line, each separated by membranes, with electrodes at the ends. My object in one experiment was to set the positive and negative ions in one of the cells out of balance, to produce an over-abundance of either positive or negative ions so that the solution in that cell would have an over-all positive or negative charge. My idea was to be able to store whatever energy this imbalance would produce. Ultimately, I wondered what would happen if one combined a positive ion rich solution with a negative ion rich solution. Would energy be released?
The experiment worked, as far as my setup being able to produce this ion imbalance. However, nature would not allow this to happen. To make up for the charge deficit in the cell, it automatically split water off one of the membrane surfaces in that particular cell, continually. I could visually see it happening as bubbles (H2 or O2) coming off of a single point on the membrane. If I was producing more positive than negative ions, water split and gave off H2 gas and OH- ions, to make up for the deficit. If the solution were negative ion rich, the water split to give off O2 gas and H+ ions. In other words, I could not store energy in a solution, at least not in the way I was trying to do it. If it had worked, I might have blown up the lab. It was a complete surprise, but a joy, the way the Creation prevented me from doing it."
I did all these experiments by cutting out rectangular windows in square styrene boxes with a Dremel. I then put a layer of teflon lab grease on the outside of the boxes around the windows. I then placed membranes that were larger than the windows on the grease and held several of these boxes together, in a line, with long rubber bands. The most boxes I used in a line was 7, with a membrane between each 2. The "cells" contained various solutions, usually dissolved metal salts. In the 2 end cells, I used various metals as electrodes, depending on the experiment. I'm thinking I used a 10A, 15V rectifier to drive it. Before and after an experiment, I analyzed the solutions in the cells with a AA. Very interesting stuff, I thought. I really got into it.