A pencil drawing on paper turns into a battery

Korean researchers have developed a battery that lights up the light emitting diode (LED) by drawing a picture on a paper with a pencil.

A team led by professor Lee Sang-young of Energy and Chemical Engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has developed a zinc-air battery that uses the pencil lead as the positive pole of a cell. The pencil lead per se is not used as a material. A battery is created when drawing a picture on a paper with a pencil.

The zinc-air battery developed by the research team, a metal-air battery, can only operate when it meets the air. It uses the oxidation phenomenon of the metal when it meets oxygen in the air. Unlike ordinary batteries, which are completely contained in a container so as to prevent any access to external air, metal-air batteries are contained before usage but taken out of its package so as to gain access to air.

The method of making a battery with a pen is very simple and amazing. On a picture drawn with a conductive pen drawing electric circuit on a paper, the positive pole with a pencil, a negative pole with a zinc ink, and the electrolyte ink create a 1.2 voltage battery.

Batteries can be created in diverse forms as the material for battery is ink. New artworks can be created by applying this to pictures. Moreover, educational kits can be developed using such batteries in light of the fact that they are only in the form of a drawing but operate exactly the same as batteries. “By using this battery, children will be able to have fun studying and learning about the basic principle of cells such as electrical series and parallels easily,” said professor Lee.


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