Intro and Materials

This fun project comes from Instructables user Roy02. With a few materials and a little bit of time, he shows us how to put together a working battery made from water. This project, which is part of the Instructables Green Design Contest, could be used to add a little charge to your smartphone or be a fun way to introduce battery chemistry to kids.

Roy02 says, "The concept behind it is to make a galvanic cell that works on either a saltbridge or a sourbridge. In this case it's a saltbridge, but you could try using plants or wine (sourbridge) to create the same effect."

Things you'll need:

- copper sulphate
- zinc sulphate
- water
- led lights low voltage (testing)
- clamp cables
- 6 plastic bottles (1L)
- 6 pieces of copper
- 6 pieces of zinc

How to make a water battery

Get started

The first step is filling the bottles with water. I recommend using six (6) 1L bottles.

Put the bottles in a wooden frame so you can move them around more easily.

Cut the copper and zinc into 6 pieces each that you can clamp and put into the bottle neck.

How to make a water battery

Make the battery

Fill the bottles and connect the anodes en cathodes:

left bottle above: add 20 gr of copper sulphate
left bottle below: add 20 gr of zinc sulphate
center bottle above: add 20 gr of zinc sulphate
center bottle below: add 20 gr of copper sulphate
right bottle above: add 20 gr of copper sulphate
right bottle below: add 20 gr of zinc sulphate

Each bottle will produce around 2 volts.

When you have this prepared, connect the copper to the red wire, with zinc on the other side so you will have a + and - side. Put zinc to the dark wire and on the other end copper. Start in the first bottle with copper and the end in the next bottle (zinc) in the second bottle you start again with a red wire that will end in the next bottle and there you start again with a black wire. This will create the electric circuit.

(Make sure the clamp cables do not touch the water.)

Close bottles and test voltage

When you're finished filling the bottles and connecting the cables, you'll end up with a red + and a black - wire from the first and last bottle.

Make sure you cover the bottle necks with plastic or rubber so that you minimize evaporation.

Measure the voltage using a voltmeter. You can also test it by using a LED that is close to the average volt that is produced.

The picture shows a 12 volt LED burning.

Finished

By using the clamps, you could connect the battery to a charging wire. This makes it possible to charge a low-powered gadget or possibly even a cellphone like in the 3D concept.