Materials Required for Experiment
- A strip of copper
- A strip of zinc
- Copper Sulfate (CuSO4) 100g
- Zinc Sulfate (ZnSO4) 100g
- A wire
- One liter distilled water
- U-shaped plastic tube filled with a concentrated salt solution
- Two containers
- A voltmeter
Procedure
First of all, you need to make 2 concentrated solutions, one of copper sulfate (CuSO4) and another one of zinc sulfate (ZnSO4). A few tips:
- In both cases, make sure that you use only distilled water.
- Keep these solutions in different containers.
- Use 10-30 grams of dry chemical per 100 cc of distilled water.
Now follow these simple steps carefully:
1. Place a zinc strip in the solution of zinc sulfate.
2. Place a copper strip in the solution of copper sulfate.
3. Use a wire to connect these strips.
4. Now put a salt bridge between the two containers.
That’s it! Simple and easy. This cell usually produces a little over one volt.
Know the secret behind this experiment
Now I’m pretty sure that you want to know the mechanism behind this simple process. Let me briefly explain.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
We used 2 strips which are the cell’s electrodes. We call the Zinc electrode the “anode” and the Copper electrode the “cathode“. The copper strip attracts electrons from the zinc strip, which flow through the wire to the copper electrode. The change in electron balance will be compensated by the movement of ions (cations and anions) from one solution to the other.
We can express the chemical reaction with the equation:
Zn + H2SO4 + CuSO4 = ZnSO4 + H2SO4 + Cu
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John Frederic Daniell (1790 – 1845)
