In reply to Jed Rothwell's message of Thu, 28 Jan 2021 20:22:58 -0500: Hi, [snip] >With regard to the possibility that the LEC is a battery: A LEC has many >similarities to a battery and we debated calling it a Hydrogen Ion Battery >but a LEC is much more. A battery is basically two electrodes of different >work function where metal ions are transported by well known chemical >reactions through a liquid electrolyte in between the electrodes.
Not always. There are "dry-cells" (not really very dry), and also cells with a solid electrolyte. >The LEC >does not have a liquid electrolyte and a LEC produces and transports gas >ions. A battery is also a voltage source and a LEC acts like a current >source. The output of a battery does not increase with temperature. A LEC >has similarities with a nuclear or atomic battery without the hazardous >radiation and they don't increase output with temperature. We settled on >calling it a LEC, Transporting gas ions may well result in a cell that has a high internal resistance. This may well explain why it acts as current source rather than a voltage source, depending on the resistance of the load compared to that of the internal resistance. In order to know that the device acts as a current source, one would need to measure the current. Current measurements are usually made with devices that deliberately have a low internal resistance, so as not to influence the measurement. [snip]
