Jefferson College of Health Sciences
Arts & Sciences Festival
ELECTRICITY AND CONDUCTIVE MATERIALS
Purpose:
To build chemical batteries, learn about conductive materials, and investigate magnetism using electricity.
Introduction:
Batteries provide electricity by converting chemical energy into electrical energy. They consist of two
electrodes: the anode (positive terminal on a battery) and the cathode (negative terminal on a battery). The
electrical energy is generated at the anode and travels to the cathode. There are two linked chemical
reactions that take place in a battery. The first one is an oxidation reaction that occurs at the anode and
produces electrons. The second one is a reduction reaction that needs the electrons from the oxidation reaction.
In this experiment you build your own electrochemical battery to generate electricity and investigate the
conductivity of some common materials. Your battery will be based on the oxidation reaction of aluminum
metal in salt water, and the reduction reaction of oxygen from air. You will use aluminum foil as the source of
aluminum metal. For the source of air, you will use activated carbon (a common aquarium filtration product).
Oxygen from the air binds to the activated carbon. After you have assembled your battery, use it as a power
source to observe the conductivity of a few materials lying around.
Research Question(s):
How do batteries work?
What types of materials are conductive?
Materials:
Aluminum foil, paper towels (or some other soft paper), activated carbon (from a pet store), copper wire,
electrical tape, small light bulbs (or anything else that you want to power up), rubber eraser, plastic straw,
paper clips
Chemicals:
Salt water and lemon juice
Procedure:
Making the battery
1. Lay a sheet of aluminum foil on a clean surface and use the electrical tape to connect a short length of
copper wire so that it sticks out. Flip the aluminum foil over so the copper wire is on the table.
2. Next, soak a sheet of paper towel in the salt water solution, ring out the excess salt water, and lay the
wet paper across the middle of the aluminum foil.
3. Place a piece of copper wire on top of the paper towel so that hangs past the aluminum foil. Pour a
small heap of activated carbon in the center of the paper towel to cover the copper wire. Pour salt water
over the activated carbon to make sure it is wet throughout. You have just constructed your chemical
battery cell!
4. Fold the aluminum foil in half to maximize contact between the copper wire and the activated carbon
inside the aluminum foil sandwich.
Testing your batteries
1. Connect the battery to a small, low-voltage electronic device. Holiday lights and small motors work best.
Try pressing down on the top of the aluminum foil battery if you are having trouble getting the device
powered up.
Conductive materials
1. Disconnect one of the leads connecting the battery to the light bulb. Wrap Play-Doh around the end of
the copper wire and connect the light bulb to the Play-Doh. What do you notice? Is Play-Doh a
conductive material?
2. Repeat this procedure for the different materials available: rubber eraser, plastic straw, and a paper
clip. Which materials are conductive? Conductive materials allow for electrons to pass through them.
What is in Play-Doh that allows it to conduct electricity? Do your own research to find an answer to this
question. Can liquids conduct electricity?
Record Your Observations Here
Electricity and Conductive Materials
pg. 2
Instructor notes:
1. Begin this activity with a short introduction to batteries as given in the introduction (that
should be plenty of information for the audience). If you encounter anyone that wants to
know more, please refer to the oxidation-reduction half-cell reactions given below. You
may also get a question about the lifetime of the battery. The battery will last until the
aluminum from the foil is completely dissolved as the ionic compound aluminum hydroxide.
The battery will also die after the oxygen in the activated carbon has been used up.
2. After the introduction, help the audience assemble their batteries. For this part, it would be
useful for you to perform the experiment along with the group…showing them what you
are doing as you progress through the procedure.
3. Clean-up and reset. Everything from this experiment can go in the trash. Don’t bother
recycling any of the activated carbon…there should be plenty for the day. The tables will
have to wiped down between sessions…the salt water tends to leave a significant amount
of salt residue on the counter tops.
Electricity and Conductive Materials
pg. 3