Episode 4 - Potatoes and Voltage

Today we're going to teach you a little something about voltage! We're also going to delve into all the ways we've been misled (by yours truly BUT ALSO BY A LOT OF OTHER PEOPLE) about the humble potato battery. Other topics of note: weddings, the curse of knowledge, theory of mind, reduction potentials again, and battery efficiency.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage

battery efficiencies: https://www.pv-magazine.com/magazine-archive/advancing-li-ion_10006681/#axzz4QbD0S6qc

research into catalysis of hydrogen reduction (aka hydrogen evolution): actually, why don't you just google it? https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C44&q=hydrogen+evolution+reaction+catalysts&btnG=&oq=hydrog there, now you've read some paper titles and you know as much as we do! (actually what the paper titles probably don't tell you is that platinum is REALLY a good catalyst but it's very expensive so that's why there's so much research into finding an alternative. Now you know!)

comparison of the ability of metals to catalyze a hydrogen reduction reaction: http://jes.ecsdl.org/content/152/3/J23.short

other questions? let us know at batterychattery@gmail.com