Our Crowdfunding Groups
Update: We've met our goal and we will fund an undergraduate this summer! Thank you to all of the supporters. We will be making videosand keeping everyone up to date on our progress. If you would like to make a contribution, we will use all further funds to support trying high performance materials like graphene for comparison to the final low-cost DIY recipe. Thanks again for all of the support!
My name is Peter Allen, and I am a chemist. I make videos about chemistry, science, experiments, and DIY projects that happen in the Allen Lab. We make batteries, grow crystals, build microfluidics, and blow stuff up with lasers (on purpose). And lately, we have been working on a better battery. With only $5,000, our lab would have the power to buy materials for this project, prototype a larger battery, and fund an undergraduate researcher during summer 2018.
My students and I have a passion for renewable energy. New technology makes solar and wind power less expensive every year; in many places, solar is the cheapest power available. However, solar and wind are intermittent and this limits how much of our current power grid can be replaced with renewable sources. Unless an economical storage solution is found, renewable power will remain a fuel-saving technology rather than a true power generation technology.
We propose to develop an iron battery that is inexpensive, simple, safe, and non-toxic. A mature version of this technology could help enable a renewable future for Idaho. Furthermore, the battery will be so simple that a hobbyist or high school student could build one for fun or as a science fair project.
Please give today to make this exciting new technology available to the public and one day soon, to Idaho citizens.
