Ordinary Dry Cell Battery The common battery (dry cell) is a device that changes chemical energy to electrical

energy. Dry cells are widely used in toys, flashlights, portable radios, cameras, hearing aids, and other devices in common use. A battery consists of an outer case made of zinc (the negative electrode), a carbon rod in the center of the cell (the positive electrode), and the space between them is filled with an electrolyte paste. In operation the electrolyte, consisting of ground carbon, manganese dioxide, sal ammoniac, and zinc chloride, causes the electrons to flow and produce electricity.

How do batteries work? Electricity is the flow of electrons through a circuit or conductive path like a wire. Batteries have three parts, an anode (-), a cathode (+), and the electrolyte. The cathode and anode (the positive and negative sides at either end of a smaller battery) are hooked up to an electrical circuit.

Electron Flow The chemical reactions in the battery causes a build up of electrons at the anode. This results in an electrical difference between the anode and the cathode. You can think of this difference as an unstable build-up of the electrons. The electrons wants to rearrange themselves to get rid of this difference. But they do this in a certain way. Electrons repel each other and try to go to a place with fewer electrons. In a battery, the only place to go is to the cathode. But, the electrolyte keeps the electrons from going straight from the anode to the cathode within the battery. When the circuit is closed (a wire connects the cathode and the anode) the electrons will be able to get to the cathode. In this example, the electrons go through the wire, lighting the light bulb along the way. This is one way of describing how electrical potential causes electrons to flow through the circuit. However, these electrochemical processes change the chemicals in anode and cathode to make them stop supplying electrons. So there is a limited amount of power available in a battery. When a battery is recharged, the direction of the flow of electrons is changed, The electrochemical processes happen in reverse, and the anode and cathode are restored to their original state and can again provide full power.

Lead Storage Battery

A lead storage battery, also known as a lead-acid battery, is the oldest type of rechargeable battery and one of the most common energy storage devices. The batteries were invented in 1859 by French physicist Gaston Plant. They are used in a variety of applications. Most people are accustomed to using them in vehicles, where they have the ability to provide high currents for cranking power. For remote power systems, deep discharge batteries are used. Unlike car starter batteries which are used to provide high current for very short periods, deep discharge batteries are designed to hold larger amounts of energy for longer periods of time. Although batteries are reliable, they have a limited life, are heavy to ship, and contain toxic materials that require specific removal methods at the end of their useful life. Remote applications usually require larger batteries that have higher amounts of lead and more room for electrolytes. Lead-acid batteries have moderate power density and good response time. Depending on the power conversion technology incorporated, batteries can go from accepting energy to supplying energy instantaneously. Lead-acid batteries are affected by temperature and must be maintained well in order to achieve maximum life expectancy. In Plant's design of the lead-acid cell, the positive and negative plates were made out of two spirals of lead foil, separated with a sheet of cloth and coiled up. The cells initially had low capacity. A slow process of "forming" was required to corrode the lead foils, creating lead dioxide on the plates and roughening them to increase surface area. Initially this process used electricity from primary batteries. When generators became available after 1870, the cost of the production of batteries greatly declined. Plant plates are still used in some stationary applications where the plates are mechanically grooved to increase their surface area Figure 1. The Camille Alphonse Faure pasted-plate construction is typical of automotive batteries today. Each plate consists of a rectangular lead grid. The holes of the grid are filled with a paste of red lead and 33% dilute sulfuric acid. This porous paste allows the acid to react with the lead inside the plate, which increases the surface area. Once dry, the plates are stacked with suitable separators and inserted in the battery container. An odd number of plates is usually used, with one more negative plate than positive. Each alternate plate is connected. In this charged state the plates are called 'formed.'

ALKALINE CELL Alkaline batteries are a type of primary batteries dependent upon the reaction between zinc and manganese dioxide (Zn/MnO2). A rechargeable alkaline battery allows reuse of specially designed cells. Compared with zinc-carbon batteries of the Leclanch or zinc chloride types, alkaline batteries have a higher energy density and longer shelf-life, with the same voltage. Button cell silver-oxide batteries have higher energy density and capacity but also higher cost than similar-size alkaline cells. The alkaline battery gets its name because it has an alkaline electrolyte of potassium hydroxide, instead of the acidic ammonium chloride or zinc chlorideelectrolyte of the zinc-carbon batteries. Other battery systems also use alkaline electrolytes, but they use different active materials for the electrodes. Alkaline batteries account for 80% of manufactured batteries in the US and over 10 billion individual units produced worldwide. In Japan alkaline batteries account for 46% of all primary battery sales. In Switzerland alkaline batteries account for 68%, in the UK 60% and in the EU 47% of all battery sales including secondary types.
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Alkaline batteries are used in many household items such as MP3 players, CD players, digital cameras, pagers, toys, lights, and radios, to name a few. Batteries with alkaline (rather than acid) electrolyte were first developed by Waldemar Jungner in 1899, and, working independently, Thomas Edison in 1901.
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The alkaline dry battery using the zinc/manganese dioxide chemistry was invented by Canadian engineer Lewis Urry in the 1950s while working for Union Carbide's Eveready Battery division inCleveland, OH, building on earlier work by Edison.
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On October 9, 1957, Urry, Karl Kordesch, and P.A.

Marsal filed US patent (2,960,558) for the alkaline battery. It was granted in 1960 and was assigned to the Union Carbide Corporation.

When introduced in the late 1960s, alkaline batteries contained a small amount of toxic mercury amalgam to control side reactions at the zinc cathode. With mercury content reduced by law and improvements in the purity and consistency of materials, manufacturers have reduced the mercury content in modern cells.
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