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How Batteries Work

How do batteries power our world? See more battery pictures.

Imagine a world where everything that used electricity had to be plugged in.
Flashlights, hearing aids, cell phones and other portable devices would be tethered
to electrical outlets, rendering them awkward and cumbersome. Cars couldn't be
started with the simple turn of a key; a strenuous cranking would be required to get
the pistons moving. Wires would be strung everywhere, creating a safety hazard
and an unsightly mess. Thankfully, batteries provide us with a mobile source of
power that makes many modern conveniences possible.
While there are many different types of batteries, the basic concept by which they
function remains the same. When a device is connected to a battery, a reaction
occurs that produces electrical energy. This is known as an electrochemical
reaction. Italian physicist Count Alessandro Volta first discovered this process in
1799 when he created a simple battery from metal plates and brine-soaked
cardboard or paper. Since then, scientists have greatly improved upon Volta's
original design to create batteries made from a variety of materials that come in a
multitude of sizes.
Today, batteries are all around us. They power our wristwatches for months at a
time. They keep our alarm clocks and telephones working, even if the electricity
goes out. They run our smoke detectors, electric razors, power drills, mp3 players,
thermostats -- and the list goes on. If you're reading this article on your laptop
or smart phone, you may even be using batteries right now! However, because
these portable power packs are so prevalent, it's very easy to take them for
granted. This article will give you a greater appreciation for batteries by exploring
their history, as well as the basic parts, reactions and processes that make them

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work. So cut that cord and click through our informative guide to charge up your
knowledge of batteries.

The history of batteries can be traced back to 1800. Learn about the
history of batteries and find out how the Daniell cell battery is
constructed.
HowStuffWorks.com
Battery History
Batteries have been around longer than you may think. In 1938, archaeologist
Wilhelm Konig discovered some peculiar clay pots while digging at Khujut Rabu, just
outside of present-day Baghdad, Iraq. The jars, which measure approximately 5
inches (12.7 centimeters) long, contained an iron rod encased in copper and dated
from about 200 B.C. Tests suggested that the vessels had once been filled with an
acidic substance like vinegar or wine, leading Koenig to believe that these vessels
were ancient batteries. Since this discovery, scholars have produced replicas of the
pots that are in fact capable of producing an electric charge. These "Baghdad
batteries" may have been used for religious rituals, medicinal purposes, or even
electroplating.
In 1799, Italian physicist Alessandro Volta created the first battery by stacking
alternating layers of zinc, brine-soaked pasteboard or cloth, and silver. This
arrangement, called a voltaic pile, was not the first device to create electricity, but
it was the first to emit a steady, lasting current. However, there were some
drawbacks to Volta's invention. The height at which the layers could be stacked was
limited because the weight of the pile would squeeze the brine out of the
pasteboard or cloth. The metal discs also tended to corrode quickly, shortening the
life of the battery. Despite these shortcomings, the SI unit of electromotive force is
now called a volt in honor of Volta's achievement.

The history of batteries can be traced back to 1800. Learn about the
history of batteries and find out how the Daniell cell battery is
constructed.
HowStuffWorks.com
The next breakthrough in battery technology came in 1836 when English chemist
John Frederick Daniell invented the Daniell cell. In this early battery, a copper plate
was placed at the bottom of a glass jar and a copper sulfate solution was poured
over the plate to half-fill the jar. Then the zinc plate was hung in the jar, and a zinc
sulfate solution was added. Because copper sulfate is denser than zinc sulfate, the
zinc solution floated to the top of the copper solution and surrounded the zinc plate.
The wire connected to the zinc plate represented the negative terminal, while the
one leading from the copper plate was the positive terminal. Obviously, this
arrangement would not have functioned well in a flashlight, but for stationary
applications it worked just fine. In fact, the Daniell cell was a common way to power
doorbells and telephones before electrical generation was perfected.
By 1898, the Colombia Dry Cell became the first commercially available battery sold
in the United States. The manufacturer, National Carbon Company, later became
the Eveready Battery Company, which produces the Energizer brand.
Now that you know some of the history, click over to the next page to learn the
various parts of a battery.
Anatomy of a Battery
Take a look at any battery, and you'll notice that it has two terminals. One terminal
is marked (+), or positive, while the other is marked (-), or negative. In normal
flashlight batteries, like AA, C or D cell, the terminals are located on the ends. On a
9-volt or car battery, however, the terminals are situated next to each other on the
top of the unit. If you connect a wire between the two terminals, the electrons will
flow from the negative end to the positive end as fast as they can. This will quickly
wear out the battery and can also be dangerous, particularly on larger batteries. To

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properly harness the electric charge produced by a battery, you must connect it to
a load. The load might be something like a light bulb, a motor or an electronic
circuit like a radio.
The internal workings of a battery are typically housed within a metal or plastic
case. Inside this case are a cathode, which connects to the positive terminal, and
an anode, which connects to the negative terminal. These components, more
generally known as electrodes, occupy most of the space in a battery and are the
place where the chemical reactions occur. A separator creates a barrier between
the cathode and anode, preventing the electrodes from touching while allowing
electrical charge to flow freely between them. The medium that allows the electric
charge to flow between the cathode and anode is known as the electrolyte. Finally,
the collector conducts the charge to the outside of the battery and through the
load.
On the next page, we'll explore how the cathode, anode, electrolyte, separator and
collector work together to produce an electrical current and keep your portable
devices going strong.
Battery Reactions and Chemistry
A lot happens inside a battery when you pop it into your flashlight, remote control or
other wire-free device. While the processes by which they produce electricity differ
slightly from battery to battery, the basic idea remains the same.
When a load completes the circuit between the two terminals, the battery produces
electricity through a series of electromagnetic reactions between the anode,
cathode and electrolyte. The anode experiences an oxidation reaction in which
two or more ions (electrically charged atoms or molecules) from the electrolyte
combine with the anode, producing a compound and releasing one or more
electrons. At the same time, the cathode goes through a reduction reaction in
which the cathode substance, ions and free electrons also combine to form
compounds. While this action may sound complicated, it's actually very simple: The
reaction in the anode creates electrons, and the reaction in the cathode absorbs
them. The net product is electricity. The battery will continue to produce electricity
until one or both of the electrodes run out of the substance necessary for the
reactions to occur.
Modern batteries use a variety of chemicals to power their reactions. Common
battery chemistries include:

Zinc-carbon battery: The zinc-carbon chemistry is common in many

inexpensive AAA, AA, C and D dry cell batteries. The anode is zinc, the
cathode is manganese dioxide, and the electrolyte is ammonium chloride or
zinc chloride.

Alkaline battery: This chemistry is also common in AA, C and D dry cell
batteries. The cathode is composed of a manganese dioxide mixture, while
the anode is a zinc powder. It gets its name from the potassium hydroxide
electrolyte, which is an alkaline substance.

Lithium-ion battery (rechargeable): Lithium chemistry is often used in

high-performance devices, such as cell phones, digital cameras and even
electric cars. A variety of substances are used in lithium batteries, but a
common combination is a lithium cobalt oxide cathode and a carbon anode.

Lead-acid battery (rechargeable): This is the chemistry used in a typical

car battery. The electrodes are usually made of lead dioxide and metallic
lead, while the electrolyte is a sulfuric acid solution.

The best way to understand these reactions is to see them for yourself. Go to the
next page for some hands-on battery experiments.
Battery Experiments: Voltaic Pile
If you want to learn more about the electrochemical reactions that occur in
batteries, you can actually build one yourself using simple household materials. One
thing you should buy before you start is an inexpensive ($10 to $20) volt-ohm
meter at your local electronics or hardware store. Make sure that the meter can
read low voltages (in the one-volt range) and low currents (in the five-to-10 milliamp
range). With this equipment on hand, you'll be able to see exactly how well your
battery is performing.
You can create your own voltaic pile using quarters, foil, blotting paper, cider
vinegar and salt. Cut the foil and blotting paper into circles, then soak the blotting
paper in a mixture of the cider vinegar and salt. Using masking tape, attach
a copper wire to one of the foil discs. Now stack the materials in this order: foil,
paper, quarter, foil, paper, quarter, and so on until you have repeated the pattern
10 times. Once the last coin is on the stack, attach a wire to it with masking tape.
Finally, attach the free ends of the two wires to an LED, which should light up. In this
experiment, the copper in the quarter is the cathode, the foil is the anode, the cider
vinegar-salt solution is the electrolyte, and the blotting paper is the separator.
A homemade battery can also be made from copper wire, a paper clip and a lemon.
First, cut a short piece of copper wire and straighten out the paper clip. Use
sandpaper to smooth out any rough parts on the ends of either piece of metal. Next,
gently squeeze the lemon by rolling it on a table, but be careful not to break the
skin. Push the copper wire and the paper clip into the lemon, ensuring that they are
as close together as possible without actually touching. Finally, connect your voltohm meter to the ends of the paper clip and the copper wire, and see what kind of
voltage and current your battery produces.

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By now you should be well acquainted with the basic principles by which batteries
discharge electricity. Read on to discover how some batteries can be recharged.
Rechargeable Batteries
With the rise in portable devices such as laptops, cell phones, MP3 players and
cordless power tools, the need for rechargeable batteries has grown substantially in
recent years. Rechargeable batteries have been around since 1859, when French
physicist Gaston Planet invented the lead acid cell. With a lead anode, a lead
dioxide cathode and a sulfuric acid electrolyte, the Planet battery was a precursor to
the modern-day car battery.
Non-rechargeable batteries, or primary cells, and rechargeable batteries,
or secondary cells, produce current exactly the same way: through an
electrochemical reaction involving an anode, cathode and electrolyte. In a
rechargeable battery, however, the reaction is reversible. When electrical energy
from an outside source is applied to a secondary cell, the negative-to-positive
electron flow that occurs during discharge is reversed, and the cell's charge is
restored. The most common rechargeable batteries on the market today
are lithium-ion (LiOn), though nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) and nickelcadmium (NiCd) batteries were also once very prevalent.
When it comes to rechargeable batteries, not all batteries are created equal. NiCd
batteries were among the first widely available secondary cells, but they suffered
from an inconvenient problem known as the memory effect. Basically, if these
batteries weren't fully discharged every time they were used, they would quickly
lose capacity. NiCd batteries were largely phased out in favor of NiMH batteries.
These secondary cells boast a higher capacity and are only minimally affected by
the memory effect, but they don't have a very good shelf life. Like NiMH batteries,
LiOn batteries have a long life, but they hold a charge better, operate at higher
voltages, and come in a much smaller and lighter package. Essentially all highquality portable technology manufactured these days takes advantage of this
technology. However, LiOn batteries are not currently available in standard sizes
such as AAA, AA, C or D, and they're considerably more expensive than their older
counterparts.
With NiCd and NiMH batteries, charging can be tricky. You must be careful not to
overcharge them, as this could lead to decreased capacity. To prevent this from
happening, some chargers switch to a trickle charge or simply shut off when
charging is complete. NiCd and NiMH batteries also must be reconditioned, meaning
you should completely discharge and recharge them again every once in a while to
minimize any loss in capacity. LiOn batteries, on the other hand, have sophisticated
chargers that prevent overcharging and never need to be reconditioned.

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Even rechargeable batteries will eventually die, though it may take hundreds of
charges before that happens. When they finally do give out, be sure to dispose of
them at a recycling facility.

Battery arrangement determines voltage and current. Check out serial

battery arrangements, parallel arrangements and what maximum current
is about.
Battery Arrangement and Power
In many devices that use batteries -- such as portable radios and flashlights -- you
don't use just one cell at a time. You normally group them together in a serial
arrangement to increase the voltage or in a parallel arrangement to
increase current. The diagram shows these two arrangements.
The upper diagram shows a parallel arrangement. The four batteries in parallel
will together produce the voltage of one cell, but the current they supply will be four
times that of a single cell. Current is the rate at which electric charge passes
through a circuit, and is measured in amperes. Batteries are rated in amp-hours, or,
in the case of smaller household batteries, milliamp-hours (mAH). A typical
household cell rated at 500 milliamp-hours should be able to supply 500 milliamps
of current to the load for one hour. You can slice and dice the milliamp-hour rating in
lots of different ways. A 500 milliamp-hour battery could also produce 5 milliamps
for 100 hours, 10 milliamps for 50 hours, or, theoretically, 1,000 milliamps for 30
minutes. Generally speaking, batteries with higher amp-hour ratings have greater
capacities.
The lower diagram depicts a serial arrangement. The four batteries in series will
together produce the current of one cell, but the voltage they supply will be four
times that of a single cell. Voltage is a measure of energy per unit charge and is

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measured in volts. In a battery, voltage determines how strongly electrons are
pushed through a circuit; much like pressure determines how strongly water is
pushed through a hose. Most AAA, AA, C and D batteries are around 1.5 volts.
Imagine the batteries shown in the diagram are rated at 1.5 volts and 500 milliamphours. The four batteries in parallel arrangement will produce 1.5 volts at 2,000
milliamp-hours. The four batteries arranged in a series will produce 6 volts at 500
milliamp-hours.
Battery technology has advanced dramatically since the days of the Voltaic pile.
These developments are clearly reflected in our fast-paced, portable world, which is
more dependent than ever on the portable power source that batteries provide. One
can only imagine what the next generation of smaller, more powerful and longerlasting batteries will bring.