6 ms·
> To be clear, the potato is not, in and of itself, an energy source. What the potato does is simply help conduct electricity by acting as what’s called a salt-
by dnhz 5y ago
> To be clear, the potato is not, in and of itself, an energy source. What the potato does is simply help conduct electricity by acting as what’s called a salt-bridge between the the two metals, allowing the electron current to move freely across the wire to create electricity. Numerous fruits rich in electrolytes like bananas and strawberries can also form this chemical reaction. They're basically nature’s version of battery acid.
That doesn't sound so exciting to me.
- young_unixer 5y agoIsn't that a bit like saying "The sun is not a light source, it's just very hot, which causes hydrogen to go into nuclear fusion, which releases energy in form of electromagnetic radiation"? Or is my comparison flawed?
- cma 5y agoNo, the potato is basically acting as a salt bath here. It would be more like thinking the empty space the sun's light travels through is the light source, not the sun.
- edrxty 5y agoThe energy is coming from metals rather than the potato. The potato simply links them allowing their ions to react and create an electric potential.
- soarfourmore 5y agoIwish the article described the cost, size, and rarity of the two metals, but instead it focused only on the potato
- edrxty 5y agoIf you want a deeper dive, the chemistry here is actually really simple and (IMO) very cool. I'm drawing on some really dusty knowledge here but TL;DR the cells can be modeled as two reactions, oxidation and reduction. One is gaining an ion and the other is shedding one. This is typically shown in the equation as some number of "e-". Because there are two reactions, each one is described as a half cell and there are tables[1] of all the voltages that these half cells create. Therefore you can mix and match to create batteries of arbitrary voltages, though whether they're practical is another issue. If you look at the table, you'll notice that some common battery chemistries stand out, like: Li+ + e− ⇌ Li(s) −3.0401 for lithium Ion batteries (the other reaction adding the last ~.7v to reach the nominal 3.7 cell voltage you're used to). Similarly you can find the half cells that make up a 1.5v alkaline battery[2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_electrode_potential_(data_page) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_electrode_potential_(... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkaline_battery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkaline_battery
- amluto 5y agoThe actual paper does: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239391768_ZnCu-vegetative_batteries_bioelectrical_characterizations_and_primary_cost_analyses https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239391768_ZnCu-vege...
- amluto 5y agoIt can’t be quite that simple. I’m not at all an expert in electrochemistry, but you can put pure zinc and pure copper together in a sealed container with nothing else except ideal electrodes until the cows come home, and you will not end up with copper oxides, zinc oxides, or any useful energy output.
- samstave 5y agoI don't know why - but this comment makes me laugh
- numpad0 5y agoWhat it means is that the potato is just working as a media to connect two metal plate and not as a power source. Actual voltage and current is created by the metal plates corroding and melting into potato. So it’ll be like saying “the atmosphere is not an energy source, it just blows between the sun and solar panels” without understanding what that means.
- canadianfella 5y agoFlawed
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]