This Self-Glowing Ring Doesn't Need a Battery, It is the Battery!

According to creator Oguz Coskun (AKA OguzC3), his glowing LED ring doesn’t need a battery. You simply have to wash your hands or put it in water when the light goes out. However, per the project write-up, it’s not so much that it doesn’t require a battery, but that the ring itself is the battery.

The wearable is made with pieces of aluminum and copper pipe, stacked together and separated by a strip of newspaper, and tightened with copper wires. Salt water is applied to this newspaper, letting electrons pass from aluminum to copper, creating a galvanic reaction where copper becomes the positive pole of this new ring-battery, and the aluminum is the negative. Electrical potential here comes out to be around 0.5V.

To harvest this energy, a hole is drilled through the ring and an LED joule thief is assembled for the job. The negative lead is connected to aluminum and positive to copper. Silicon is used to waterproof the LED assembly, allowing the ring be washed without shorting everything out, while re-wetting the newspaper to allow electrons to flow.

Coskun notes that, “You can find all of your electronic components from trash. (used electronic parts) or you can buy them if you want. For example this ring is made completely out of trash.” Sounds like a great activity when your stuck at home and can’t necessarily get needed components in a timely manner!