Typical lemon batteries involve a copper electrode and a zinc electrode.
Interestingly, the copper does not play a part in the reaction.
The reaction involves the reactive metal Zn displacing hydrogen from solution. At the zinc electrode, we have Zn(s) > Zn2+(aq) + 2e-. At the copper electrode, 2 H<+(aq) + 2e- > H2 (g).
Sorry, formatting was off there.
At the zinc electrode, we have Zn(s) > Zn2+(aq) + 2e-. At the copper electrode, 2 H+(aq) + 2e- > H2 (g).
Just reading about it
Given the structure of a lemon it would be hard for the H2 to move away from the copper plate
Then you’d have problems with Zn being able to move away from the zinc plate
Lemon juice could be better
Urine is more easily found and can be slightly acidic
Then again simply blowing air through water makes carbonic acud
It’s all about urine for you.
dv said:
It’s all about urine for you.
It needs those dissolved protons to make things really start cooking
We used lemon slices, zinc-coated nails and copper clips, six in series. The voltage obtained was about 2.7 V, the current about .11 mA.
A few micromoles of hydrogen gas would be produced, maybe a tenth of a millilitre per hour.
Interestingly, our per-unit voltage is only about 70% of what you’d expect under optimal conditions. Could be any number of reasons, I suppose: the copper isn’t pure copper, the zinc is not pure zinc, there would be inter-segment leakage etc. It sufficed as an illustration.
I found it impossible to find anything made of copper in S’pore’s hardware stores. I wasn’t fussy: just needed any hooks, tacks, pins, nails, screws, sheets, cuttings … anything made of copper. Nowt. I’d ask the staff about it and they’d look at me like I was mad, as though I’d asked for kryptonite or something.
Soon, I’ll be living near a Bunnings again. What larks then, eh, pip? I’ll get a whole bag of copper roofing tacks, and one of those mini-ice cube trays with 50 cups, and use a vinegar-salt solution instead of lemons.
wire DV, that is copper.
JudgeMental said:
wire DV, that is copper.
Unfortunately that did not prove very effective when I’ve tried it in previous years, perhaps because of the low effective surface area.
I ended up ordering copper clips online.
know any plumbers?
In a month I’ll be back in the land of Bunnings so I shall not pursue it further.
I have heaps of lemons so will be interesting what kind of power you get. i might be able to go citrus for running the house.
As spec’d above, we got around 0.3 milliwatts. A standard “house” in Australia seems to be about 1 kW, so if you literally used the same methodology, you would need to scale up our experiment 3 million fold.
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet. But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat
Dropbear said:
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet. But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat
The lemon tree is pretty
But the lemon tree is sour
Our simple lemon battery
Produced negligible power
how about hybrids? lemon grapefruit? orange tangelo? dammit i want free power!
dv said:
Dropbear said:
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet. But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat
The lemon tree is pretty
But the lemon tree is sour
Our simple lemon battery
Produced negligible power
being in the employ of Big Zinc, your “scientific” results are highly questionable, and personally I’d be looking into the source of your grants…
Dropbear said:
dv said:
Dropbear said:
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet. But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat
The lemon tree is pretty
But the lemon tree is sour
Our simple lemon battery
Produced negligible power
being in the employ of Big Zinc, your “scientific” results are highly questionable, and personally I’d be looking into the source of your grants…
Global warming deniers and agreers might both approve of mass power generation from lemons
JudgeMental said:
how about hybrids? lemon grapefruit? orange tangelo? dammit i want free power!
Given that you will still have to purchase the zinc which is consumed by this process, this will still not be “free”.
there’s always a bloody catch. no wonder tesla went mad.
You could use urine