How to make a photochemical battery with your own hands

Hello dear subscribers and guests of my channel. You all know very well that dozens of scientific groups and hundreds of factories around the world are engaged in the development and production of solar panels.

Today I want to invite you to join this process and create your own photochemical battery, which, with some reservations, can be considered a solar battery. At the same time, we will make it literally from scrap materials.

What does a photochemical battery consist of?

So, the main elements in our photochemical (solar) battery will be two copper plates. Let it be known to you that it was copper oxide that became the first material in the world in which scientists discovered the photoelectric effect.

And for the successful construction of a battery, you and I will need the following materials:

1. Copper sheet. A couple of pieces (square or rectangular) of 5-7 cm will be quite enough.
2. Two crocodile clips.
3. Microammeter. It is needed in order to determine what amperage the finished photochemical battery generates.
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4. Electric oven. It will be needed to carry out the oxidation process on one of the copper plates.
5. Any transparent container. A plastic bottle is fine.
6. Common table salt.
7. Hot water.
8. Sandpaper. It will be required in order to clean the copper plates from the oxide film.

So, after all the necessary elements are prepared, you can proceed to the direct experiment.

Preparing copper plates

At the first stage, we need to prepare the plates with you. To do this, carefully clean one of the prepared plates with sandpaper and then put it on a preheated electric stove.

And now we are waiting. As soon as the entire copper plate turns black, we count down another 40 minutes, during which the copper plate continues to “fry” on the stove.

And only after that we turn off the stove and let our copper plate cool down. Since the cooling rate of the copper plate itself and the oxide film will be different, you will see that most of the plaque will go away on its own.

But you will still need to clean the plate. To do this, carefully wash off the black film under running water.

Note. When removing black deposits from the copper plate, do not try to peel off any remaining black areas or bend the plate. This neatness is necessary to keep the copper layer intact.

So, after that we take the plates and place them in a previously prepared container using crocodiles, to which small wires are soldered. In this case, we simply connect the cleaned plate with the help of sandpaper to the minus, and connect the plate processed with the electric stove to the plus.

After that, we proceed to the preparation of the saline solution. To do this, dissolve a few tablespoons of table salt in hot water and then pour the liquid into a container with electrodes.

That's it, our photochemical battery is ready. Now let's check how it works. To do this, connect a microammeter to the terminals.

So, the connected device shows that in the shade, the battery produces a current of 20 μA. And as soon as the photochemical battery was moved under the rays of the sun, the connected ammeter went off scale. This suggests that the current has increased and clearly became more than 100 μA.

Of course, with the help of such a photochemical battery, you will not even light an LED light bulb, but here spark your child's interest in studying such an exciting science as physics, you clearly it will work out!

You can also find a lot of useful and interesting things on my telegram channel 👉 Energofiksik 👈, go and subscribe.

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