Water Powered Battery
Project overview: Have you ever wondered how you can create an interesting and cool project with just household materials? This project allows just that and generates actual electricity to power a small LED!
Materials required:
Pennies (about 10-15)
Washers (10-15)
Cardboard: cut into small circles and the size of the coins
Vinegar
Salt
Multimeter
Instructions:
To prepare the electrolyte mixture, mix ½ cup of vinegar with 2 tablespoons of salt. Soak the cardboard circles in the solution for about 5 minutes
Built the stack in a repeating order of coin, cardboard and then the washer. Repeat this until the stack is a tall column without letting the sides touch
Place a probe of the multimeter on the button coin and the top of the washer
Watch the voltage go up and add more layers of the stacks. A single cell is one coin,cardboard,washer combo and adding more of the cells would increase the total voltages.
Explanation:
The vinegar soaked cardboard acts as an electrolyte bridge and a chemical reaction occurs where the zinc through the washer gives up electrons known as oxidation and the copper through the pennies accepts them known as reduction. By stacking these in series, a measurable potential difference through voltage demonstrates how chemical energy is converted into electrical flow.
