Make a Battery from Potato

Introduction:

Batteries generate electricity through a chemical reaction between two different

electrodes and one electrolyte. Use of Copper and Zinc electrodes and Sulfuric acid as
electrolyte is a proven method for this process. We are wondering if we can use any other
liquid as electrolyte? This gave us the idea of using a potato as electrolyte. After all a
fresh potato has a lot of juice that may serve our purpose as electrolyte.

Problem:

Can Potato be used to generate electricity?

Hypothesis:

Potato juice contains many water soluble chemicals that may cause a chemical reaction
with one or both of our electrodes. So we may get some electricity from that.

Material:

For this experiment we use:

• A fresh potato
• Copper Electrode
• Zinc Electrode
• A Digital or Analog Multimeter to
measure Voltage or Current of
produced electricity.

• Alligator clips/ Leads

Procedure:

We insert copper and zinc electrodes in to the potato, close but not touching each other.
We use Clip leads to connect our electrodes to the Multimeter to measure voltage
between two electrodes or current passing through the multimeter. For this experiment
we removed the shell of a broken AA battery for our Zinc electrode. (Make sure to test
your multimeter by connecting its Positive and Negative wires to each other that should
show no current and no voltage).
 Record And Analyze Data: A digital multimeter showed 1.2 volts between the
electrodes, but the analog multimeter showed a much
smaller value. In other words even though the voltage
between electrodes is 1.2 Volts, the speed of production
of electricity is not high enough for an analog multimeter
to show the exact voltage. (Analog multimeter gets its
power from our potato to show the voltage, but digital
Multimeter gets its power from an internal battery and
does not consume any of the electricity produced by our
potato, that is why it shows a larger and more accurate
value).
We repeated this experiment with some other fruits and
all resulted almost the same. In all cases the produced
voltage is between 1 and 1.5 volts, and in all cases they
do not produce enough current to turn on a small light.
Another thing that we learned from this experiment is that creating electricity and
making a battery is easy, the main challenge is producing a battery that can continue
to produce larger amount of electricity for larger amount of time.

By connecting
multiple potato
batteries you can
make enough
electricity to light-up
a super bright light
emitting diode
(Included in the kit).

Make electricity science kit contains

all material that you need in order to
successfully experiment making
electricity by a chemical reaction.
Some chemicals are harmful and
dangerous! that's why we recommend
you to use household chemicals such
as acetic acid (Vinegar), baking soda, Miniature Copper and
fruits and fruit juice. Socket Multi tester or
Zinc Multi meter
electrodes
WARNING

This kit contains small and sharp

objects. keep it out of reach of small
children. Adult supervision is required.
Base board Screws
The purpose of this science kit is to
 Color Coded
Wire Leads
simplify the process of finding and
purchasing material that you need for
your experiments.

Secure Online Store Miniature Bulb

LED Instruction URL 1.2V

Analog Multimeter does NOT need battery in order to

test voltage and current. You will need a battery to
test the resistance.

Warranty:
If any of the parts in this kit are defective, return it to us within 7 days from the date of purchase and we will repair
or replace it for you at no charge.