My 5V home-made battery

[mdanh2002]

I got bored today and decided to start making my own battery using lemon and Coke. Here is the result, a 5.16V battery:

**broken link removed**

There are a total of 11 cells - 10 slices of lemon and a bowl of Coke. Each cell provides around 0.47V. The 2 electrodes are the aluminum strip from the Coke can, and Singapore $1 coin.

Although it provides a 5V, the current is only enough to light up an LED briefly. The LED can light up brightly with a single 1.5V AAA cell.

Just for fun Suggestions to improve the voltage or to make the LED brighter are welcome.

 

[ericgibbs]

Just for fun Suggestions to improve the voltage or to make the LED brighter are welcome.

That looks like Diet Coke, perhaps Regular Coke might give you that extra UUmphhh.!!

I would try different electrode metals...

 

[Mosaic]

I think the coke has a high resistance. Use the lemons alone.

 

[JimB]

Use the $1 coins to buy a bottle of Baccardi,
make a 50:50 mix with the coke,
add some ice,
drink the mixture,
repeat until you dont care how much the LED lights up!

JimB

 

[mdanh2002]

I have tried various electrode metal combinations from my junk box and this is the best combination. Squeezing the lemons seems to increase the voltage a bit. The original setup provides 5.7V but drops to 5.16V after I finished arranging it to take photos Replacing the coins and the aluminum does not help, perhaps the chemicals inside the lemons have degraded.

And too bad I can't have multiple cells on the same lemon, I need to cut into multiple pieces - each cell on one piece.

The Coke itself provides around 0.6V, a bit higher than the lemon. I tried replacing the Coke with another lemon cell and the LED does not seem to be brighter - maybe the improvement is too small.
@ericgibbs: You are right this is Diet Coke, perhaps drinking Regular Coke will give me more energy to find better electrodes But from an electrical point of view, I believe the difference is insignificant.

 

[Reloadron]

Been there and done that but ran out of lemons that day. I did manage a tiny glow in my LED which loaded down my lemons. I wasn't as enthusiastic as you were. The wife on the other hand was convinced I was simply going out of my mind and my few active brain cells were dying off.

I used galvanized nails and US pennies which no longer actually have any copper content to speak of.

Ron

 

[transistor495]

Inverter and transformer

A joule thief will give you much brighter LED performance. But doing that is actually non-sense here. Try to improve some current

 

[SABorn]

Think you are pissing in the wrong bucket, save the lemons and try urine, i seen a program on a fellow that developed a system that used urine from humans and animals for 3rd world countrys to generate power.

It was a resource there is always plenty of, what was not disclosed was the type of metals was used for the best results.

So why we all pee it up the wall over NYE think we could all power several leds in a grass hut for a lesser established person than ourselves.

On that note Happy New Year.........(it beter be better than the last one)

Pete.

 

[Reloadron]

Thank you Pete for that refreshing post.

Gives new meaning to piss up a rope. Additionally, never, ever piss into the wind!

Ron

 

[ericgibbs]

Thank you Pete for that refreshing post.

Gives new meaning to piss up a rope. Additionally, never, ever piss into the wind!

Ron

Ron as it Xmas the season of piss ups, I thought it would be OK to drift off topic for this one.

Joke:
Young snake goes crying to his mother,
"Mummy those snakes next door wont let me hiss in their pit",
mummy replies,
"Dont let that bother you, I knew them before they had a pit to hiss into!"

Try telling that after a few drinks....

Regards

 

[RODALCO]

This lemon battery I made a couple of years ago.
As soon a load is applied the total voltage drops to the zener working voltage of the led.

a bigger surface electrode area will aid in more current flow.

lemon open circuit voltage 0.9 Volts Cu - plated screw, loaded about 0.5 volts

YouTube - Lemon and salt water batteries

 

[mdanh2002]

This lemon battery I made a couple of years ago.
YouTube - Lemon and salt water batteries

Thanks for the interesting video.

Your LED brightness is propbably the same as what I got. I need to look directly above it to see if it lights up.

I think you don't need a full lemon. As long as there as spaces for the electrodes, cutting each lemon into half or even quarter will do.

What are the electrodes you use for salt water? I tried but could not get enough voltage. I think salt water battery is neater than lemon battery. Ants and flies start to come as soon as my lemon battery is set up.

 

[atferrari]

I do not udnerstand what you need the Coke for.

https://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/kitchenscience/exp/charging-ipods-with-lemons/

Much cleaner / practical is using potatoes with zinc and copper electrodes.

There is / was? a site showing an audio amp driven by such a battery taking full space in the car's trunk.

 

[mdanh2002]

The ideas of the Code were inspired from this website Chapter 3: Electrochemistry -- Make homemade batteries in your kitchen . In my setup, the Coke "cell" provides 0.6V, slightly higher than the rest of the cells.

I don't think a potato battery has enough current to drive an audio amplifier. You may need hundreds of them, making the ideas impractical.

 

[ben7]

a bigger surface electrode area will aid in more current flow.

I think I might try this.

I tried an earth battery before, it gave pretty much the same results as the lemon batteries.

-Ben

 

[unclejed613]

look up "galvanic series". it will tell you what metals are best for a battery. pick one from the most positive end and pick one from the most negative end. a galvanic series (unfortunately without the voltages) can be found here Galvanic series - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

pick one from the top of the list and one from the bottom of the list. the further they are apart on the list, the higher the voltage.

also note that as metal ions leech into the lemon, they can't migrate well through all of the solid tissues of the fruit. the battery would work better if it were lemon juice only and the metal plates closer together. the current capacity is proportional to the surface area of the plates too...

a shorter table with voltages can be found here:
https://corrosion-doctors.org/Definitions/galvanic-series.htm

 

[MrAl]

Hi,

Here's mine. Cut the lemon into quarters and used a penny for one side and a nail for the other.

Note the faint glow of the white LED.