Saturday, 16 April 2011

Juan's Metallic Mystery

It is impossible for us to answer every question and email we receive (especially technical ones).

But occasionally I like to share questions here on the blog and see if our informal "science community" can help.

The latest puzzle comes from someone named Juan....

His email is as follows (and for the record, we DO NOT condone the opening of batteries!):

I opened a 'Super Heavy Duty Battery' , to get the Zinc, Manganese Dioxide and graphite. After doing that I found a piece of metal and I do not know what is that, here are some properties I experimented:
- Bad Conductivity of Electricity and Thermal.
- It is light and it is a sheet.
- It does not melt at 700 - 900 K , when I heat it, it seems to form some kind of Oxide on the metal and I can get rid of it easily.
- It does not react with HCl.
I thought it to be an alloy but these previous properties made me think of Titanium, but it is quite expensive so it would be strange.
I hope you can help me. Thank you! And very interesting videos.
Posted by Brady at 05:38
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9 comments:

  1. Lord Greybear III16 April 2011 at 06:45

    It sounds like it could be Titanium, probably the best way to identify it is to measure it's electrical resistance if you have the equipment. Titanium should be around 420 nΩ·m. If you can get hold of some very accurate calibrated callipers and an analytical balance you could work out it's density. Good luck.

    (And I also don't condone taking batteries apart)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown16 April 2011 at 06:50

    Could it be a stainless steel casing ?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc%E2%80%93carbon_battery

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous16 April 2011 at 07:12

    Antimony.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unknown16 April 2011 at 12:05

    what color is the oxide? is it possible for him to post a picture of the metal?

    ReplyDelete
  5. فرسان السعودية4 February 2024 at 10:57

    افضل شركات نقل عفش واثاث مع الفك والتركيب والتغليف بعمالة مدربة وفنيين مدربين وسيارات مجهزة لنقل الاثاث بالممكلكة
    شركة نقل عفش بجدة

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous4 April 2026 at 00:47

    전체적으로 매우 만족스러운 서비스였습니다. 예약부터 마무리까지 모든 과정이 깔끔했고, 관리사의 전문성이 돋보였습니다. 출장마사지 특히 이동이 어려운 날에 매우 유용하며, 편안하게 휴식을 취할 수 있어 좋았습니다. 재이용 의사가 있습니다.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous12 May 2026 at 03:47

    온라인 결제 수단으로 매우 만족스럽게 사용 중입니다. 상품권매입 를 통해 여러 콘텐츠를 쉽게 이용할 수 있고, 충전과 사용이 간단해 누구나 편리하게 이용 가능합니다.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous13 May 2026 at 02:08

    필요한 순간 빠르게 구매하고 바로 사용할 수 있어 매우 편리했어요. 상품권소액결제 서비스 덕분에 절약 효과도 커서 앞으로도 계속 이용할 생각입니다.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous24 May 2026 at 03:30

    자유로운 근무 시간 덕분에 부업으로 병행하기에 정말 괜찮았어요. 업무 중 여우알바 밤알바 관련 내용도 현실적인 도움이 되었습니다.

    ReplyDelete

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