Making Electricity From Salt Water

By: Ariel Balter, Ph.D.

ABSTRACT

Saltwater can serve as the electrolyte in a battery, generating electricity. A battery

has three parts: an electrolyte and two electrodes, which are made of different materials,
often metals. Some of the first batteries, made by Alessandro Volta around 1880, used
saltwater, silver and zinc to generate electricity. This type of battery is easy to build and
experiment with.

In water, table salt, or sodium chloride (NaCl), dissolves into positively charged
sodium ions (Na+) and negatively charged chlorine ions (Cl-). Chemists call a solution of
ions such as this an electrolyte. In a battery, one electrode, called the cathode, sheds
electrons into the solution, leaving it with a positive charge. At the same time, the other
electrode, the anode, collects electrons, giving it a negative charge. Ions in the electrolyte
help facilitate this process. The charge imbalance between the two electrodes creates a
electrical potential difference, or voltage. If you connect the terminals in a circuit, the
electrons built up in the anode will flow through the circuit back to the cathode, creating
an electrical current.

Volta made his "Voltaic Pile" battery with units consisting of saltwater-soaked paper
sandwiched between a silver disk and a zinc disk. He stacked up this basic unit to create a
battery with significant voltage. The term for such basic units is cells. You can make a
similar battery quite easily with household items. You will need five pennies made after
1982, cardstock or paperboard, salt, water, electrical tape, 120-grit sandpaper and two
wires with stripped ends. Pennies made in 1983 and after are copper-coated zinc disks.