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Are lemon/fruit, vegetable, and vinegar batteries examples of galvanic/voltaic cells?

Are galvanic cells (with zinc and copper) without a salt bridge an OPEN circuit?  

But don't galvanic cells allow brief flow of electrons without salt bridge?  So doesn't this seem to be a temporary closed circuit?


Hello Elizabeth,

1. According to this website
"A galvanic cell consists of two half-cells". That would not be true of  lemon/fruit, vegetable, and vinegar batteries. So perhaps it is quibbling, but I guess the answer needs to be no.

2&3. Based on the answer to #1, the answer to #2 would appear to be yes. Galvanic cells without a salt bridge would be 2 unconnected half-cells. But - scroll to the section heading Description and continue scrolling to the 1st bullet below. Look at the last sentence. That supports what you say in your 3rd question. I don't know how long it would be before the "imbalance in charge would stop the reaction". It would depend of course on the size of the load (therefore the current) between the electrodes and the size of the half-cells.

Go to
These batteries do not have a salt bridge, but they don't qualify as galvanic cells. I don't see a need to quibble about semantics, but your teacher may see such a need.

I hope this helps,


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Steve Johnson





BS Physics, North Dakota State University
MS Electrical Engineering, North Dakota State University

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