Posted on 05/07/2022 7:51:09 AM PDT by fireman15
This is all anyone, considering an EV purchase, needs to know:
“Hydrofluoric acid is a solution of hydrogen fluoride in water. A colorless liquid, hydrofluoric acid is highly corrosive – it can dissolve glass! – and is extremely toxic. If it comes into contact with our skin or eyes, it can cause severe chemical burns that are very painful and slow to heal. If left untreated, it is absorbed into the body’s tissues and bones causing their destruction. It interferes with our body’s calcium metabolism and contact with concentrated hydrofluoric acid can result in systemic toxicity, cardiac arrest and even death.”
Yes, I have had the same problem many times. I am not saying that its not a serious problem and very annoying... I can't tell you how many electronic trinkets that I have had destroyed over the years by alkaline batteries that leaked. Sometimes you can salvage them and sometimes not.
The goo leaking out of alkaline batteries is mostly potassium hydroxide. The amount leaking out of an AA battery can burn your skin if you try hard enough... and it would probably make you sick if you licked up enough of it. But compared to HF or Hydrofluoric acid... it is not something that is very harmful or particularly toxic. It is one of the primary additives to many fertilizers. I have never even bothered to wear gloves when trying to clean it off the little coiled wires at the ends of a battery holder.
Technically, the corrosion caused by potassium hydroxide from alkaline batteries is the product of the reaction between the chemical and the metals that it has reacted with.
IIRC, this is the same acid that Walter White used to dissolve a body on Breaking Bad.
I was tempted to include photos of some HF injuries, but they are so disgusting that I thought that they would detract from the conversation.
In real life I doubt anyone would use it for that purpose. Sulfuric and Nitric acid would work as well and are much less dangerous to work around and dispose of.
I would think that some lawyers by now would sense a ‘class action suit’ with the number of batteries that leak way before their ‘use by dates’. This is at epic portions today. Destroying so many devices in the process.
And as we spoke, they do it years before use by dates, even still in store packages.
Really criminal on major companies part.
There should be a unconditional webpage where we get ‘free’ replacement...show a photo, just for the asking.
But EVs are perfect. Nothing ever goes wrong with them, and they never need maintenance,and they are immune from damage in wrecks. And when the batteries reach the end of use (10 or more years), they magically just disappear and another one can be bought for a steal.
There are plenty of shills, er, EV owners here spouting this BS every time someone mentions the dark side of EVs.
I’ve used HF to etch cut rock surfaces. Scary, scary stuff. The lab protocol was to wash hands, arms, and face very thoroughly with soap and lots of water immediately after using any amount of HF, no matter what PPE you were wearing. Then I’d go straight home or to the gym and take a long shower.
If it can eat Mike Ehrmantraut and Crazy Eight, it can eat you, too…
Yes, there is some possible hydrofluoric acid in li batteries.
But not much.
Should I throw out my toothbrush? Laptop? Cellphone?...
What would be a safe quantity?
Oh, the humanity!
Effect of trace hydrofluoric acid in a LiPF6 electrolyte on the performance of a Li–organic battery with an N-heterocycle based conjugated microporous polymer as the cathode
If people understood chemistry, they’d never allow fluoride in their drinking water.
I stopped buying Kirkland batteries years ago because they destroyed one remote control after another. I switched to much more expensive Duracells but lately they have been doing the same thing. And like you said, years before the pull dates and often still in the packages.
My father once got it on him in a lab situation and immediately used and indicator on it and then titrated it with a weak base to neutralize the acid before it could harm him
“They pose a potentially lethal chemical hazard to anyone working on or near EHVs.”
And if I remember right, some of them have been know to self ignite while in peoples’ garages.
so what about all the cordless battery tools that most households own these days? Lithium-ion batteries
Or is this not a risk also?
Fortunately, the typical lithium-ion battery found in consumer electronics are sealed up far better than your typical AA battery. So, I think you are probably going to be alright... But if you have one that is bulging or visibly leaking, it would probably be wise to take greater precautions than with a typical alkaline battery.
What the article that I started the thread with is really about, is the potential problems with Electric Vehicle batteries which can weigh hundred and even more than a thousand pounds. If you can't tell the difference...
I use rechargeable nimh instead of duracell batteries, they all leak now, many like you say they leak.
The leakage problem has gotten far worse in recent years, I have some duracell from 2000 that are fine, but recent ones just leak everywhere after a few years/
Indeed but you know their logic it won’t happen to me.
Spent my career in the semiconductor industry. One of the first things I learned about was the dangers and proper handling of HF. Never got a burn but I knew several that got mild to severe HF burns.
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