A salt water battery is a wet-cell battery that uses salt water as its electrolyte. Normally wet-cell batteries use acids for their electrolyte. Car batteries use sulfuric acid – nasty stuff. The goal of this project is to to use safer materials than those found in normal batteries. Cadmium, Sulfuric Acid, Potassium hydroxide are all not good for the environment or for people.
My research begins with trying for find out what the two electrodes should be made of to provide the most power out of the saline solution I have chosen. I have decided to work with salt water that has a similar salinity to sea water. I feel using elements and liquids that are commonplace will help people best understand what the battery is made up of. Lead and acids have nasty connotations.
Finding information on what the best electrodes to use has proven to be much more difficult to weed through via research on the internet. Let down by hours of weeding through eco-friendly-energy-snake-oil, I decided to order samples of common electrode materials and test them in different combinations myself.
