Dawg Sled

University of Washington
What powers our car? What stops our car?
Elon Musk once said that the problem with existing batteries is Iodine Clock
that they suck. If the CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX felt Hydrogen peroxide variation of the iodine clock reaction to
obligated to complain about batteries and found no dissent from stop our car.
his complaint, then it is obvious that batteries are the technology After a certain time the color of the solution will change to a
to improve. Currently, the best battery technology is geared dark blue.
towards lithium-ion batteries. A major problem with building In order to vary the time we have changed the hydrogen
lithium-ion batteries is the expense. The equipment and peroxide concentration.
materials needed to build lithium-ion batteries, including the The color change blocks light from an LED to a photoresistor,
need for additional safety features, is way over the budget of our the voltage change triggers a relay to disconnect the battery
basement laboratory. In the end, we decided upon building a from the motors.
custom 3-D printed dry cell battery as the energy source of our
car. This dry cell battery is commonly known as the zinc-carbon
battery, but more accurately described as a zinc-manganese Materials for our iodine clock
battery. Mixture A
Starch, Sodium thiosulfate, Potassium iodide, Water
Battery Uniqueness Mixture B
Although the zinc-carbon battery chemistry is a throwback to the Sulfuric Acid, Hydrogen peroxide, Water
first commercially sold battery, we had implemented ways to
innovate this classic battery further. The carbon anode used for Figure 2: Initial design of car with 3-D printed body.
this battery is recycled carbon fiber scraps from a materials Reaction for the iodine clock
science research lab on UW campus. For the battery cell First Reaction
compartments we employed a customized flat cell design and 3- H2O2 + 3I + 2H+ I3- + 2H2O
D printed the casings in the most efficient manner. After the Generates triiodine ions
battery cell sandwich is assembled, each cell are connected in Second Reaction
series and then attached to the electric motor, powering our car. 2S2O32 + I3- S4O6 + 3I-
This reaction is faster than reaction one and is the rate
determining step.
Materials to make our zinc-carbon battery Third Reaction
Anode (negative terminal) I3- + starch Starch-I5- complex + I
Zinc plate After all the thiosulfate ions have been consumed by reaction 2,
Cathode (positive terminal) the triiodide ions react with the starch to form the starch-
Manganese dioxide, ammonium chloride, zinc chloride, pentaiodide complex. This product is what gives the solution the
graphite powder dark blue color.
Carbon fiber as the carbon anode
Flat cell compartments (3-D printed)
PLA (polylactic acid) filament Environmental, Health, and Safety
Emission free vehicle!
Waste is easily disposed of properly to UW EH&S.
Zinc-carbon battery total chemical reaction Battery stack is contained within a 3D printed, sealed plastic
Zn(s) + 2MnO2(s) + 2NH4Cl(aq) Mn2O3(s) + Zn(NH3)2Cl2 (aq) casing.
+ H2O(l) Figure 3: The car body group working on assembling the car. High pressures, gaseous emissions, and ignition sources are
avoided using the battery system.
All members wore lab safety goggles and nitrile gloves while
working in the lab.
Members underwent UW EH&S trainings for managing
laboratory chemicals, fire extinguisher operation and the
Globally Harmonized Systems.

Acknowledgements
The Chem-E-Car Club would like to give thanks to UW Department
of Chemical Engineering for providing us the funds and space to
pursue our project. We would especially like to thank department
chair Franois Baneyx and our club advisor Professor Stuart Adler.

Figure 4: All members of the ChemE Car club, including our advisor
Stuart Adler.
Figure 1: Measuring electric potential of our prototype batteries.