HOW TO BUILD A PROTOTYPE BATTERY

What’s a Battery? A battery is a device that contains materials that, when connected, trigger a chemical reaction that yields an electrical current, which is simply a stream of electrons. The transfer of electrons from one metal to another can be induced by putting them in the presence of an electrolyte (salt) solution.

We can create our own Battery using pennies, foil, paper towels, cider vinegar and salt.

Instructions 1.Prepare the anode. Aluminum loses electrons faster than copper, so it will be the source of our electric current, called an anode. To prepare the aluminum foil anode, cut 10 circles with the scissors to the exact size of a penny.

2.The paper towel is the separator. To prepare this, cut out 10 squares just large enough to circumscribe a penny, then soak the paper squares in a mixture of the cider vinegar and salt.

3.Using masking tape, attach a copper wire to one of the foil discs. Now stack the materials in this order: foil, paper, penny, foil, paper, penny, and so on until you have repeated the pattern 10 times. Once the last coin is on the stack, attach a wire to it with masking tape. copper wire separator foil penny

4.Finally, attach the free ends of the two wires to a Light Emitting Diode (LED), which should light up. In this experiment, the copper in the penny is the cathode, the foil is the anode, the cider vinegar-salt solution is the electrolyte and the paper towel is the separator.

Tips & Warnings Use a voltmeter to measure the strength of your homemade battery. To increase the charge produced by the battery, increase the number of pennies and foil slips in the stack. Once the paper towel is soaked and the wires are attached, the entire battery can be wrapped in electrical tape if desired, to improve appearance and reduce chance of a short circuit.