Im building a Zinc carbon battery from scratch for an engineering project at school.so I have two batteries made and each produce about 1.3-1.6 volts but I can‘t seem to get any amps so i can run a small fan with them.can anyone help me troubleshoot this one?I am using the carbon rods and shells of store bought zinc carbon batteries and preparing the paste (Mang. Oxide, carbon powder, ammonium chloride, water) and then adding it tothe the shell.the inside of the shell is lined with paper.
I wonder if the paper liner is blocking free access of the paste to the zinc shell. Try it without the paper liner. Whenever I have taken carbon-zinc batteries apart I don't remember finding any paper between the zinc shell and the filler material. Also, I presume when you say Mang Oxide you are definitely using manganese dioxide, not magnesium oxide. For you project, it seems like you are taking a dry cell apart and re-constructing it, it might be more interesting to build wet-cell batteries, as people would be able to see the different parts of the cell in action. One of the simplest would be a piece of sheet copper and a piece of sheet zinc in a glass jar of dillute acid (such as HCl). You can hook several of these cells together in series to get the voltage you need. You will need to experiment with what size sheets and how far away they are spaced, acid concentration etc to run your fan.
turn the engine on and wait for it to warm up, the fans should come on once it heats up, they should also come on when you turn the a/c on. The catch can doesn't need to hold pressure, it should be alright as long as it can hold water.
