Battery Jenga (Science Box Experiment 8)

As part of CoCoMAD, Royal Society of Chemistry have funded science boxes which are being distributed to local school children - however - the experiments are available online for anyone to take part!

Below you’ll find the experiment introductions, equipment list, method, questions to explore and - very important - health and safety information.

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Introduction

Introduction

Lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries are a rechargeable-type of battery which have become a staple in modern-day life and are used in mobile phones, laptops and, in more recent times, electric vehicles.

As these batteries are rechargeable they have to be charged, used (discharged) and then recharged and have a similar layered structure to Jenga which will be used to help demonstrate charging and discharging processes, in addition to exploring why batteries fail over time and why the rate of charge is important.

Equipment List

Jenga set
Battery Jenga labels
Glue / sticky tape

What to do

IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU HAVE READ THE HEALTH AND SAFETY SECTION BEFORE CARRYING OUT THE ACTIVITY – THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY, FRIENDS OF COTTERIDGE PARK NOR THE DEVELOPER DOES NOT ACCEPT ANY LIABILITY

Split your Jenga in half, one half will be your oxide electrode and the other the graphite electrode.
Cut out all of the labels (see end of the document for labels for 42- and 48-piece Jengas sets.
The two electrodes will require the following labels that represent the following parts of the battery:

Peel off the backing paper of the stickers and attach to the blocks (each block should only have one sticker on – see sticker on the side of the Jenga box for guidance on assembly).
Next, build your two electrodes:
Oxide Electrode
1. Three aluminum current collectors.
2. One cobalt oxide layer with two blanks.
3. Three Li-ion blocks.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 until you’ve used all stickers for this electrode.
Graphite Electrode
1. Three copper current collectors.
2. One graphite layer with two blanks.
3. Three white blank blocks.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 until you’ve used all stickers for this electrode.

Things to investigate

1) Charging-Discharging

When batteries are charging, Li-ions move from the oxide electrode to the graphite electrode. The reverse process occurs on discharge.

Have a go at charging your battery Jenga by removing the Li-ion blocks from the oxide electrode and inserting them between the layers of the graphite sheets on the graphite electrode (i.e. in place of the white blank blocks).
Do the reverse process to reset the battery Jenga to show discharge.

2) Rate of Charge

Think about how long mobile phones take to charge - do you think electric cars take the same time to charge?

Focusing on the oxide electrode, time yourself removing a Li-ion block every 10 seconds.
How many Li-ions are you able to remove in the space of 30 seconds? How many could you remove in total, without collapsing the structure?
Place all the Li-ion blocks back into the oxide electrode, so we have reset the structure.

Again, focusing on the oxide electrode, how many Li-ions can you remove in 30 seconds, if you remove the blocks every couple of seconds? (Don’t worry if the structure collapses on this fast charge).

On the different charging rates, what did you observe?
If on the fast charge your structure collapses, what would that imply on the status of the health of the battery?

3) Degradation

In the next demonstration we’re going to think about the lifetime of the batteries.

In the first demonstration where we showed charging and discharging (known as cycling our battery), did you find it tricky to remove the blocks? Did any of the electrodes collapse or were knocked quite easily?
Cycle your battery Jenga set multiple times. Can it help you work out why batteries fail over time?

Health and Safety
(remember to always use common sense)

Risk(s) & Precaution(s)

Cuts (mishandling the scissors)
Take care when using scissors (or get an adult to use them for you)

Where can I learn more?

Faraday Institution Outreach page: https://faraday.ac.uk/education-skills/stem-outreach/
Battery Technology (RSC website): https://edu.rsc.org/feature/battery-power/2020096.article
Article about this activity: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00282 )
Lithium Shuffle video (shows the charging and discharging of a Li-ion battery) https://www.rsc.org/news-events/community/2020/mar/lithium-shuffle/

Print outs for Jenga sets:

42 piece set:

48 piece set:

Feedback

We really hope you enjoy the experiments and would love your feedback on the activities and on the science activities and talks at Virtual CoCoMAD (4th July).

To send feedback please use the QR code or the link below to get to the feedback form which will probably take about five minutes to complete. If you do you will be invited to leave your email address and you will be entered into a draw to win a pack of RSC Periodic Table Top Trumps.