DETERMINING THE EMF AND INTERNAL RESISTANCE OF A CELL

Determining the emf and internal

resistance of a cell
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 2
2 Experiment principle ....................................................................................................................... 2
3 Variables.......................................................................................................................................... 3
3.1 Battery discharging (control variable: nominal voltage) ........................................................ 3
3.2 Temperature (control variable: temperature) ........................................................................ 3
3.3 Battery aging (control variable: time) ..................................................................................... 4
4 Experiment planning ....................................................................................................................... 4
4.1 Equipment ............................................................................................................................... 4
4.2 Method ................................................................................................................................... 4
4.3 Experimental setup ................................................................................................................. 5
4.4 Risk assessment ...................................................................................................................... 6
5 Measurements ................................................................................................................................ 7
5.1 Uncertainties ........................................................................................................................... 7
5.2 Deriving the resistance 𝑹 ........................................................................................................ 7
6 Analysis and results ......................................................................................................................... 8
6.1 Line of best fit ......................................................................................................................... 9
6.2 Data correlation ...................................................................................................................... 9
6.3 Abnormal pattern during the first measurements ................................................................. 9
6.4 Anomaly .................................................................................................................................. 9
6.5 Voltage across the cell in open circuit .................................................................................. 10
7 Assessment ................................................................................................................................... 11
8 Evaluation ..................................................................................................................................... 11
9 Extending the investigation .......................................................................................................... 12
10 References ................................................................................................................................ 12

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 DETERMINING THE EMF AND INTERNAL RESISTANCE OF A CELL

1 INTRODUCTION
The search for reliable energy sources has been going on for a long time. One of the most portable
energy sources is electrical: a battery composed of several cells, which yet has its own internal
resistance.

In this experiment, we will determine the internal resistance of a consumer cell. It will give some
insight into how performing battery technology is and will maybe encourage further research in the
field of batteries to minimize energy losses caused by internal resistance.

Internal resistance is composed of an electronic resistance and an ionic resistance, together they are
referred to as the total effective resistance (Energizer, 2005).

Electronic resistance is due to the conducting materials in the cell themselves and in their inter-
connections. For example, electric cables have their own extremely small electronic resistance
(Wikipedia).

Ionic resistance is due to electrochemical resistance within the cells: it contributes to energy
dissipation into heat during the transformation of chemical energy to electrical energy (Schweiger,
et al., 2010).

2 EXPERIMENT PRINCIPLE

Fig. 1: Electrical scheme of the circuit

The two parallel parts of the circuit in Fig. 1 may later be referred to as the red circuit and the blue
circuit.

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 DETERMINING THE EMF AND INTERNAL RESISTANCE OF A CELL

The cell is represented by two circuit components connected in series: an ideal cell with an
electromotive force (emf) 𝜀, and the cell’s internal resistance denoted by 𝑟. 𝑅 is the resistance of a
variable resistor.

Using an ammeter, we can measure the current 𝐼 in the circuit. Using a voltmeter, we can measure
the voltage 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 across the cell.

Ohm’s law states that the voltage across a resistance is proportional to the current which circulates
though it. The proportionality constant is the resistance. Thus, from the data booklet (IBO, 2016),
considering the part of the circuit shown in red, and assuming that the resistances of the ammeter
and switch are naught (or rather assuming they are accounted in 𝑅)

𝜀 = 𝐼(𝑅 + 𝑟)
We can expand this expression to obtain 𝜀 = 𝐼𝑅 + 𝐼𝑟 (1)

Using again Ohm’s law, 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 𝐼𝑅

We can substitute this in (1) to get 𝜀 = 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 + 𝐼𝑟

Rearranging it gives

𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 𝜀 − 𝐼𝑟
Thus, assuming 𝜀 is constant, if we collect data of several pairs of 𝑉 𝑜𝑢𝑡 and 𝐼, and plot 𝐼 on the x-axis
and 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 on the y-axis, the gradient is −𝑟, that is, the opposite of 𝑟. We are also able to determine
the y-intercept, 𝜀.

3 VARIABLES
Independent variable: 𝑅

Dependent variables: 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 , measured in Volts; 𝐼, measured in Amperes

Below we will be discussing some control variables that we will try to keep constant.

3.1 BATTERY DISCHARGING (CONTROL VARIABLE: NOMINAL VOLTAGE)

When current is drawn from the cell, the latter discharges, i.e., the emf slowly decreases. It is an
issue because this will affect the measurements taken (as 𝜀 should be constant according to the
previous logic).

Across the experiment, we will be using only a single cell for general sustainability purpose. We can
minimize the discharge of the cell by including a switch in our circuit: the circuit will be closed only
for a few seconds when each measurement is being taken. This becomes very important as the
current 𝐼 increases with decreasing values of 𝑅.

3.2 TEMPERATURE (CONTROL VARIABLE: TEMPERATURE)

Temperature affects the kinetic energy of molecules: lower temperature slows down chemical
processes within the cell. As these chemical processes slow down, the ionic resistance increases.

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 DETERMINING THE EMF AND INTERNAL RESISTANCE OF A CELL

On the other hand, at lower temperature the electric resistance decreases. However, this effect is
very small at room temperature changes.

3.3 BATTERY AGING (CONTROL VARIABLE: TIME)

Over time, metals in the battery corrode, leading to less conductivity of current in the battery, and
more internal resistance (PowerStream, 2019).

To minimize the impact of time on the battery’s internal resistance, general rules of safeguarding
and safekeeping of the battery must be followed, such as keeping it in a dry environment at room
temperature. However, battery degradation over time is a very slow process, and its overall impact
on the experiment is minimal.

4 EXPERIMENT PLANNING

4.1 EQUIPMENT
- Electrical cell
- Variable resistor (or several different resistors of different resistance values)
- 6 cables
- Switch
- Voltmeter
- Ammeter

4.2 METHOD
1. Assemble the circuit as in Fig. 1, with the switch in the open position.
2. Set the resistance of the variable resistor on its highest value.
3. Close the switch and configure the ammeter to the measurement range (starting from its
highest setting).
4. Configure the voltmeter (starting from its highest setting) to the appropriate measurement
range then put the switch into the open position once again.
5. Close the switch.
6. Read accurately the values of 𝐼 and 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 on the ammeter and voltmeter respectively and
note them.
7. Open the switch.
8. Repeat steps 5-7 slightly decrementing the value of 𝑅 each time.

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4.3 EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

Fig. 2: Image of the experimental setup

1. Cell
2. Variable resistor
3. Switch
4. Ammeter
5. Voltmeter

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4.4 RISK ASSESSMENT

Table 1: Risk assessment of the experiment

Hazard Why Precaution Likelihood Consequence

Short-circuit When handling the The circuit must be Low Catastrophic:
cell, putting both properly assembled this is a threat
poles in contact with before inserting the cell to human life.
no or little resistance into it, and a switch will
may result in damage, be used to minimize the
electrical shock, or duration the circuit is
even a fire. closed.
Resistor An overloaded resistor A resistor adapted to Low Catastrophic:
overload might trigger a fire. the voltage/current in this is a threat
the circuit needs to be to human life.
selected.
The resistor must be
regularly monitored to
ensure its temperature
is normal.
Damage to the The ammeter might The ammeter must be Low Major
ammeter break (or its internal connected in series.
fuse blow) if not
connected correctly.
Damage to the The voltmeter might The voltmeter must be Low Major
voltmeter break (or its internal connected in parallel.
fuse blow) if not
connected correctly.
Water damage Electrical equipment The experiment must Low Major
to the (especially a cell with be carried out in a dry
equipment chemical parts) is very environment, and water
sensitive to high sources must be kept
humidity or exposure far away.
to water, which can
create a short-circuit
and corrosion in the
long term.

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5 MEASUREMENTS
Table 2: raw measurements of 𝑽𝒐𝒖𝒕 and 𝑰

Current, Voltage across the cell, Resistance, Absolute uncertainty of 𝑹,

𝑰/𝑨 ±𝟏. 𝟓% 𝑽𝒐𝒖𝒕 /𝑽 ±𝟎. 𝟓% 𝑹/𝛀 𝑼𝑹 /𝛀
0.054 1.188 22.000 0.015
0.054 1.197 22.167 0.015
0.055 1.203 21.873 0.015
0.056 1.206 21.536 0.015
0.057 1.208 21.193 0.015
0.058 1.210 20.862 0.014
0.060 1.211 20.183 0.014
0.062 1.212 19.548 0.014
0.064 1.212 18.938 0.013
0.066 1.213 18.379 0.013
0.070 1.212 17.314 0.012
0.074 1.212 16.378 0.012
0.081 1.211 14.951 0.011
0.086 1.206 14.023 0.010
0.093 1.194 12.839 0.009
0.103 1.195 11.602 0.009
0.122 1.183 9.697 0.008
0.138 1.172 8.493 0.007
0.160 1.158 7.238 0.006
0.176 1.147 6.517 0.005
0.207 1.128 5.449 0.005
0.246 1.103 4.484 0.004
0.297 1.072 3.609 0.004
0.394 1.037 2.632 0.003
0.407 0.996 2.447 0.003
0.500 0.938 1.876 0.002
0.636 0.851 1.338 0.002
0.863 0.706 0.818 0.001

5.1 UNCERTAINTIES
The uncertainties of the measurement devices are given in the datasheet of the V&A MY-60
multimeter (V&A): ±1.5% for 𝐼 ±0.5% for 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 . These uncertainties result being significantly larger
0.001
than the uncertainty of the last digit divided by two, in this case = 0.0005 𝐴, and similarly
2
0.001
2
= 0.0005 𝑉.

5.2 DERIVING THE RESISTANCE 𝑹

𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡
Rearranging the equation 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 𝐼𝑅 (direct derivation from Ohm’s law) gives 𝑅 = 𝐼
. This method
allows us to estimate the value of the resistance for every measurement, as the variable resistor
does not feature setting/reading values.

The relative uncertainties for 𝑅 are calculated by adding the relative uncertainties of the numerator
and denominator. For example, for the first measurement, the absolute uncertainty of 𝑅 is
1.5 0.5 1.188
(0.054 × 100 + 1.188 × 100) × 0.054 = 0.015 (rounded to three decimal digits).

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6 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

Battery voltage in function of drawn current

1.400

1.200

y = -0.6174x + 1.2505
Rcorr² = 0.9922
1.000

0.800
Vout (V)

0.600

y = -0.1135x2 - 0.5313x + 1.2429

Rcorr² = 0.9941
0.400

0.200

0.000
0.000 0.100 0.200 0.300 0.400 0.500 0.600 0.700 0.800 0.900 1.000
I (A)

Fig. 3: Plot of measurements (𝑰 on the x-axis and 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 on the y-axis) and its 1st and 2nd degree
polynomial approximations (shown in red and blue respectively)

Measurement error bars are shown on the graph but are difficult to see due to their small size.

The linear approximation will be used to calculate 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 and 𝜀 corresponding to the gradient and the
y-intercept respectively.

The second-degree polynomial approximation will be used to show that the cell discharged across
the experiment.

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6.1 LINE OF BEST FIT

Restating from the Introduction 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 𝜀 − 𝐼𝑟, the line of best fit equation (shown as a dotted blue
line on the graph) given by Excel is 𝑦 = 1.2505 − 0.6174𝑥. Thus, 𝑟 = 0.6174 Ω ± 0.01073 (the
opposite of the gradient) and 𝜀 = 1.2505 𝑉 ± 0.0029 (the y-intercept).

Uncertainties were calculated using the LINEST function in Excel.

6.2 DATA CORRELATION

𝑅𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟 2 , the correlation coefficient for the graph (not to be confused with 𝑅, the resistance of the
variable resistor) is 0.9922. |𝑅𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟 | = √𝑅𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟 = √0.9922 = 0.9961. The closer |𝑅𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟 | is to 1, the
more correlated the data. Thus, the data from this experiment are highly correlated. Uncertainties
appearing negligeable, there is no point and no way to find distinct upper/lower bound lines of best
fit.

6.3 ABNORMAL PATTERN DURING THE FIRST MEASUREMENTS

During the very first measurements, we note that values of 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 are slightly increasing, whereas we
would expect them to decrease. This is most likely caused by a refresh of the cell with associated
internal chemical redistribution or with associated local heating effect through current flow.

This is propagated in the deduced values of 𝑅, causing the first value of 𝑅 to be slightly lower than
the second value of 𝑅, even though I had manually decreased the 𝑅.

6.4 ANOMALY
Apart from the first measurements all points fall closely to the line of the best fit, except for one
outlier: the point (0.394; 1.037). Here are some possible explanations for this incoherence:

1. Electro-magnetic interference: magnetic coupling with my laptop perturbating my circuit

and measurement.
2. Human error: when the measurement was taken, the value on the ammeter/voltmeter for it
was copied down incorrectly.

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6.5 VOLTAGE ACROSS THE CELL IN OPEN CIRCUIT

Before the data collection 1.235 𝑉 ± 0.5%
After the data collection 1.282 𝑉 ± 0.5%
Table 3: measurements of the voltage across the cell, i.e., in the blue circuit, with switch open

Normally, we would expect the voltage to be lower after the data collection, as the battery has
discharged. However, it is not the case probably because the discharge throughout the experiment is
negligeable owing to the use of the switch. Therefore, the change is probably a consequence of the
refresh of the battery as already described earlier, and of its further increased internal heating
during the experiment with ever increasing currents, reaching up to 0.863 𝐴. Figure 4 illustrates the
likely evolution of the emf.

The average of the voltage values across the cell before and after the data collection is
1.235+1.282
= 1.2585 𝑉 ± 0.0063.
2

The absolute uncertainty of this value is calculated as the sum of the absolute uncertainties of the
voltages before and after the data collection, divided by the constant factor 2
0.5 0.5
1.235 × 100 + 1.282 × 100
= 0.0063
2
This value is indeed very close to the value of 1.2505 𝑉 ± 0.0029 derived from the line of best fit in
Section 6.1.

Emf

1.282 𝑉

1.235 𝑉
Rapid voltage increase due to cell refresh

Time

Fig. 4: Sketch showing the suspected evolution of emf before, during and after the experiment

We have already observed that all the 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 values during the experiment are extremely correlated
with each other, except for the first few measurements (and one outlier). This set of first
measurements hints that the emf may have increased as displayed in Fig. 4.

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7 ASSESSMENT
Only the first few measurements and one outlier were not coherent with the rest of the data, this
being most likely due to cell refresh (e.g., heating up, chemical products redistribution, etc.).

The experiment verified the voltage of the cell, as the calculated emf 𝜀 = 1.2505 falls close to the
range of 1.2585 𝑉 ± 0.0063.

The experiment calculated a value for the internal resistance 𝑟 = 0.6174 Ω ± 0.01073.

8 EVALUATION
The experiment was highly successful, as seen by the very high correlation coefficient of the data
collected. The numerous control variables contributed to making the data accurate and highly
relevant. Unfortunately, there were limitations in the experiment: they are discussed in the table
below.

Limitation Why is it an issue Possible improvements

Electrical One possible explanation for the outlier is To minimize external
noise temporary unwanted disturbance from electro- electrical interference on a
magnetic noise. circuit, a Faraday cage – or
simpler shielding cables –
can be used (Wikipedia).
Voltmeter A source of uncertainty in this experiment is the The only way to improve this
and precision of the measuring apparatus. is to use more precise (and
ammeter more expensive) measuring
precision apparatus.
Resistance in This issue only affects cables in the blue circuit, as The length of these cables
the electric their own resistances will be added to the must be reduced, and they
cables calculated value of the internal resistance of the could be replaced by
cell 𝑟. For the other cables, this is not an issue, as superconductors.
they will just be artificially added to the resistance
of the variable resistor 𝑅 (𝑅 isn’t used to derive
any values for the emf or the internal resistance).
Anyway, the contribution of this error is extremely
small due to the very low current flowing through
the cables.
Cell When current flows in the circuit, the cell To avoid discharging the cell,
discharge discharges, leading to a decrease in voltage. only high resistance values
Indeed, we observe that the degree 2 polynomial should be used. In this
line of best fit 𝑦 = −0.1135𝑥 2 − 0.5313𝑥 + experiment, most
1.2429 (shown as a dotted red line on the graph) measurements were done
is slightly convex, indicating a slightly exaggerated on high 𝑅 values and
decrease in voltage as the intensity increases. anyway lasting only few
minutes.
Cell electrical Real battery behavior is also function of Use a more refined cell
model temperature, and more complex battery models model.
may be more accurate.
Table 4: evaluating possible improvements for the experiment

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9 EXTENDING THE INVESTIGATION

We could repeat the experiment with other batteries to see how their internal resistances differ
from this carbon-zinc battery. This would give us insight into how different battery technologies
differ in terms of internal resistance. This would then hint us towards which cell to use to minimize
energy losses.

10 REFERENCES
Energizer. 2005. Battery Internal Resistance. [Online] Energizer Holdings, Inc., December 2005.
https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/batteryir.pdf.

IBO. 2016. Physics data booklet. [Online] International Baccalaureate Organization, 2016.
https://www.iisjaipur.org/International_Wing/physics_Data_booklet.pdf.

PowerStream. 2019. Battery impedance and resistance. [Online] PowerStream, October 17, 2019.
https://www.powerstream.com/internal-resistance.htm.

Schweiger, Hans-Georg & Obeidi, Ossama & Komesker, Oliver & Raschke, André & Schiemann,
Michael & Zehner, Christian & Gehnen, Markus & Keller, Michael & Birke, Kai. 2010. Comparison of
Several Methods for Determining the Internal Resistance of Lithium Ion Cells. Comparison of Several
Methods for Determining the Internal Resistance of Lithium Ion Cells. [Online] June 2010.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51984362_Comparison_of_Several_Methods_for_Deter
mining_the_Internal_Resistance_of_Lithium_Ion_Cells.

V&A. V&A Digital Multimeter MY60/MY64/MY67/MY68 Electric Instrument. [Online]

https://pdf.directindustry.com/pdf/shanghai-yi-hua-v-instrument-co-ltd/v-digital-multimeter-my60-
my64-my67-my68-electric-instrument/156613-613317.html.

Wikipedia. Internal Resistance. Wikipedia - Internal Resistance. [Online] Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_resistance.

—. Noise (electronics). Wikipedia - Noise. [Online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_(electronics).

All websites mentioned above were accessed on the 3rd of April 2022.

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