Names: Removed for anonymity

Engineering Notebook- Electrochemical Battery

Refer to the rubric and six stages when completing this document. Be sure to include
drawings and photos throughout the project.

Problem:
Make a battery that produces enough energy to keep a fan working for 5 minutes.

Hypothesis:
If we use two metals chosen due to their highest to lowest standard of reduction potentials in a
parallel circuit, there will be enough energy to charge a small fan for five minutes.

Design:
- Parallel circuit
- copper/stereo wire
- Two voltaic cells using Mg and Cu

Procedure:
1. Soak strips of filter paper with KNO3 solution (two for the first test) making it the salt bridge.
2. Add 15 mL of 1 M Cu(NO3)2 solution in two beakers and 15 mL of 1 M Mg(NO3)2 solution
in the other two beakers.
3. Take a salt bridge and put it one side in a Cu(NO3)2 beaker and the other side in the
Mg(NO3)2 beaker (do the same with the other salt bridge and two beakers).
4. Put in the Copper metal in the 1 M Cu(NO3)2 solution and the Magnesium metal in the 1 M
Mg(NO3)2 solution with copper wiring ready to make the circuit.
 5. To power the small music device, the circuit is designed to be parallel where the anode is the
negative end and the cathode will be the positive end, so you connect the positive ends to the
positive wire of the small music box and the negative ends to the negative wire of the small
music box.
6. Test the circuit to see if the music plays, record it with one’s phone, and then check the voltage
with the voltmeter. Record.
7. Use the remaining solution to see how much the voltage rises and see if the music box plays
better. Record.
8. Take the solar pane and the motor, attach the hand made fan propellers onto the motor, then
two lab partners will record the fan moving with a phone.
9. Make sure to submit the recordings to youtube and add the links.

Materials:
1. Mg (s)
2. Cu (s)
3. 75 mL of 1 M Cu(NO3)2 (aq)
4. 75 mL of 1 M Mg(NO3)2 (aq)
5. Copper wiring
6. Printer Paper (fan blades)
7. Scissors
8. Timer
9. Voltmeter
10. Small DC motor
11. Filter paper soaked in KNO3 solution
12. Four 100 mL beakers
13. Small music device

Modifications:
Originally we were making our salt bridges with straws to have a solid substance but we ran out of
time on the first day, so by the second day the salt bridge was made with filtration paper. After the
first testing to see if the music box plays the music we were thinking about adding a third Galvanic
cell with balanced solutions of 25 mL in each beaker, but we ended up adding the remaining
solutions in the existing four beakers and test the small music box again to try and see if the voltage
of the circuit grows.

Data:
The first trial/ recording of volts was 1.58, then 1.60
For the second trial, volts reached about to be 1.50

Results:
The voltaic cell battery we made using Cu and Mg. The battery produced a maximum of 1.60V and
was able to make the music box work. The fan also spun pretty well on the motor using the
photovoltaic cell.

Conclusion:
R.) The purpose of the lab was to create a working galvanic cell with metals and solution. By using
knowledge of what an anode and cathode were, and how to connect wires, this was achieved. By the
end of the lab, a musical device was able to to be powered. However, due to possible error or a
mechanical mistake, the fan was unable to be powered by the cell, it did work with a solar panel
though.
E.) We had set up the lab to where we used filtration paper with KNO3 solution (one strip per
galvanic cell), and initially two beakers with 15 mL of 1 M Mg(NO3)2 solution and two other beakers
of 15 of 1 M Cu(NO3)2 solution where the cathode and anode metals were place in their solution to
make a cell and have electricity once we plugged in a small music device. After testing to see if the
music played, we measured the volts of the circuit; for the next step we made more salt bridges and
used the rest of the solutions to see if the circuit would become stronger (we measured it again).

R.) I have seen ​Mythbusters​ do an episode on a myth that required a onion being put in gatorade,
drained, then used to charged an ipod, that little experiment related in the sense that the solution
consisted of charges (electrolytes) but our labhad more to do with having a Cathode, an Anode, and
a salt bridge. I may not be able to relate this lab to be exactly like other of our labs, but we know that
this is basically like another battery except with other metals and amount of volt to be able to
output.

U.) The bottle that stored the Cu(NO)3 solution was leaking so we lost some of the solution due to
that and ended up not using precisely 75 mL of that solution for our cathode. Another uncertainty
was when we were measuring the voltage for the final circuit, the voltmeter readings were not clear
and continued to bounce around. We were unable to find the cause, but after trying to make the
speaker work and measuring the voltage again afterwards, the voltmeter worked more accurately.
There was contamination with the solutions as well since we poured out some of the solution but
were unable to use them on the first day so we had to pour them back into the container.

N.) Something new we learned was how voltaic cells and batteries work, and this can be applied to
making simpler low-voltage cells for simple circuits and devices.
The Voltaic Cell Functioning: ​https://youtu.be/-Zbwvsz3J38
The Fan Spinning: ​https://youtu.be/Q_UcTPHPtO4