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Battery and Alternative Energy Sources
Making a Battery from a Lemon
You will learn about the structure of a simple voltaic battery that converts chemical energy into electrical electrodes. Steel and copper wires are the electrodes in this battery and the citric acid in lemon is the electrolyte. A variety of citric solutions can be used as the electrolyte, including lemon, orange, grapefruit, kiwi and tomato juice. They produce battery outputs ranging from 0.5 to 0.9V, depending on the acidity of the fruit.
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Materials
18-gauge copper wire (smaller gauge will work too, but 18-gauge is stiffer)
Develop Your Understanding
1. Measure the voltage output of your lemon battery. Can you use this battery to power an LED? If not, why?
2. The lemon battery produces very small current (about 1 milliampere). Can you think of ways to increase the output current high enough to power an LED?
3. Record the output voltage and current values at various times. Plot the voltage and current in dimensionless quantities (V/Vinitial and I/Iinitial), where Vinitial and Iinitial are the voltage and current output at zero time.
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Time
(minutes)
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Voltage
(Volts)
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Current
(Amps)
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V/Vinitial
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I/Iinitial
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0
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1
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1.5
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2
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2.5
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3
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3.5
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4
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4.5
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5
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4. Plot V/Vinitial and I/Iinitial data as a function of time. Can you explain the observed changes of the dimensionless voltage and current?
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