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Stacked battery of copper and zinc plates with salt solution
Build a stacked battery from copper and zinc plates and salt solution that lights up an LED.
- Time
- ⏱ 30 min
- Difficulty
- ◆ medium
What you need
- copper plates and the same number of zinc plates
- sponge cloths
- saturated table salt solution
- wires
- crocodile clips
- LED
- sandpaper
How to do it
- Cut the plates and sponge cloths to the same size and clean the plates with sandpaper.
- Soak the sponge cloths in salt solution, but not too wet.
- Stack in the order copper, sponge cloth, zinc, copper and so on. Connect the top and bottom layers to the load.
- Vary the number of plates.
Why it works
The number of plates sets the maximum possible voltage (series connection), and the size of the plates sets the maximum possible current.
Variations
- Lemon juice or acetic acid as the electrolyte; both are less suitable than salt solution.
Sources
This is where we found the tip. The badge above shows how well it is backed up.
- daten.didaktikchemie.uni-bayreuth.de (opens in a new tab)
Je mehr Platten in Reihe geschaltet werden, desto heller leuchtet die Diode bzw. desto schneller dreht sich der Propeller.
