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Battery | History and Working Principle of

Batteries
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History and Working Principle of Batteries

Charging and Discharging of Battery
Principle of Electrolysis
Faraday Laws of Electrolysis
Applications of Electrolysis
Working of Lead Acid Battery
Voltaic Cell
Alkaline Batteries
Nickel Iron Batteries or Edison Batteries
Zinc-Carbon Battery
Construction of Leclanche Cell
Magnesium Battery
Aluminum Air Battery
Mercuric Oxide Battery
Series Parallel Battery Cells

History of Battery
Step by Step Development in History
Working Principle

In the modern era, electrical energy is normally converted from mechanical energy, solar energy, and chemical
energy etc. A battery is a device that converts chemical energy to electrical energy. The rst battery was developed
by Alessandro Volta in the year of 1800. In the year 1836, John Frederic Daniell, a British chemist developed the
Daniell cell as an improved version of the voltaic cell. From that time until today, the battery has been the most
popular source of electricity in many daily life applications.
In our daily life, we generally use two types of battery , one of them is which can be used once before it gets totally
discharged. Another type of battery is rechargeable which means it can be used multiple times by recharging it
externally. The former is called primary battery and the later is called secondary battery .

batteries can be found in di erent sizes. A battery may be as small as a shirt button or may be so big in size that a
whole room will be required to install a battery bank. With this variation of sizes, the battery is used anywhere from
small wrist watches to a large ship.

Battery Symbol

We often see this symbol in many diagrams of electrical and electronics network. This is the most popularly used
symbol for battery . The bigger lines represent positive terminal of the cells and smaller lines represent negative
terminal of the cells connected in the battery .
We are often confused about the terms battery cell and battery . We generally refer a battery as a single electrochemical cell. But literally, battery does not mean that. Battery means a number of electro-chemical cells connected
together to meet a certain voltage and current level. Although there may be a single cell battery , literally, battery
and cell are di erent.

Inppamet Anodes
Sustainable electrometallurgy IC ANODE. Zinc Electrowinning.

History of Battery

Parthian Battery

In the year of 1936 during the middle of summer, an ancient tomb was discovered during construction of a new
railway line near Bagdad city in Iraq. The relics found in that tomb were about 2000 years old. Among these relics,
there were some clay jars or vessels which were sealed at the top with pitch. An iron rod, surrounded by a
cylindrical tube made of wrapped copper sheet was projected out from this sealed top. When these pots were lled
with an acidic liquid, they produced a potential di erence of around 2 volts between the iron and copper. These clay
jars are suspected to be 2000 year old battery cells.

Luigi Galvani experiment with frogs legs

In 1786, Luigi Galvani, an Italian anatomist and physiologist was surprised to see that when he touched a dead frogs
leg with two di erent metals, the muscles of the legs contracted. He could not understand the actual reason why,
otherwise he would have been known as the rst inventor of the battery cell. He thought the reaction might be due
to a property of the tissues.

Voltaic Pile

After that, Alessandro Volta realized that same phenomenon could be created by using cardboard soaked in salt
water instead of frog's leg. He sandwiched a copper disc and a zinc disc with a piece of cardboard soaked in salt
water in between them and found a potential di erence between the copper and zinc. After that in 1800, he

developed the

rst Voltaic Pile (battery) constructed of alternating copper and zinc discs with pieces of cardboard

soaked in brine between them. This system could produce measurable current. Alessandro Volta's voltaic pile was
considered the rst "wet battery cell". Thus, the history of battery began.

Daniell Cell

The main problem with the Voltaic pile was that, it could not deliver current for a long time. This problem was solved
by a British inventor John F. Daniell in 1836. He invented a more developed version of the battery cell which is
known as the Daniell cell. Here in this cell, one zinc rod is immersed in zinc sulfate in one container and one copper
rod is immersed in copper (II) sulfate in another container. The solutions of these two containers are bridged by a U
shaped salt bridge. A Daniell cell could produce 1.1 volt and this type of battery lasted much longer than the Voltaic
pile.
In 1839, the fuel cell was designed by Sir William Robert Grove, a discoverer and man of science. He mixed hydrogen
and oxygen within an electrolyte solution, and created electricity and water. The fuel cell did not deliver enough
electricity, but it is helpful.
Bunsen (1842) and Grove (1839) created enhancements to battery that used liquid electrodes to supply electricity.

Lead Acid Battery

In the year of 1859, Gaston Plante; rst developed the lead acid battery cell. This was the rst form of rechargeable
secondary battery. The lead acid battery is still in use for many industrial purposes. It is still the most popular to be
used as car battery .
In 1866, the battery was again developed by a French engineer, Georges Leclanche. It was a carbon-zinc wet cell
battery known as the Leclanche cell. Crushed manganese dioxide mixed with a bit of carbon forms the positive
electrode and a zinc rod is used as the negative electrode. Ammonium chloride solution is used as a liquid
electrolyte. After some years, Georges Leclanche himself improved his own design by replacing liquid ammonium
chloride solution with ammonium chloride. This was the invention of the rst dry cell.
In 1901, Thomas Alva Edison discovered the alkaline accumulator. Thomas Edison's basic cell had iron as the anode
material (-) and nickel oxide as the cathode material(+). This is just one portion of an endless history of battery .

Step by Step Development in History of Batteries

DEVELOPER/INVENTOR

COUNTRY

YEAR INVENTION

Luigi Galvani

Italy

1786

Animal Electricity

Alessandro Volta

Italy

1800

Voltaic Pile

John F. Daniell

Britain

1836

Daniell Cell

Sir William Robert Grove

Britain

1839

Fuel Cell

Robert Bunsen

German

1842

used liquid electrodes to supply electricity

Gaston Plante

France

1859

Lead Acid Battery

Georges Leclanche

France

1866

Leclanche Cell

Thomas Alva Edison

United States

1901

Alkaline Accumulator

Working Principle of Battery

To understand the basic principle of battery properly, rst, we should have some basic concept of electrolytes and
electrons a nity. Actually, when two dissimilar metals or metallic compounds are immersed in an electrolyte, there
will be a potential di erence produced between these metals or metallic compounds.
It is found that, when some speci c compounds are added to water, they get dissolved and produce negative and
positive ions. This type of compound is called an electrolyte. The popular examples of electrolytes are almost all
kinds of salts, acids, and bases etc.
The energy released during accepting an electron by a neutral atom is known as electron a nity. As the atomic
structure for di erent materials are di erent, the electron a nity of di erent materials will di er. If two di erent
kinds of metals or metallic compounds are immersed in the same electrolyte solution, one of them will gain
electrons and the other will release electrons. Which metal (or metallic compound) will gain electrons and which will
lose them depends upon the electron a nities of these metals or metallic compounds. The metal with low electron
a nity will gain electrons from the negative ions of the electrolyte solution. On the other hand, the metal with high
electron a nity will release electrons and these electrons come out into the electrolyte solution and are added to
the positive ions of the solution. In this way, one of these metals or compounds gains electrons and another one
loses electrons. As a result, there will be a di erence in electron concentration between these two metals. This
di erence of electron concentration causes an electrical potential di erence to develop between the metals. This
electrical potential di erence or emf can be utilized as a source of voltage in any electronics or electrical circuit. This
is a general and basic principle of battery .
All batteries cells are based only on this basic principle. Lets discuss one by one. As we said earlier, Alessandro Volta
developed the rst battery cell, and this cell is popularly known as the simple voltaic cell. This type of simple cell can
be created very easily. Take one container and ll it with diluted sulfuric acid as the electrolyte. Now immerse zinc
and one copper rod in the solution and connect them externally by an electric load. Now your simple voltaic cell is
completed. Current will start owing through the external load.
Zinc in diluted sulfuric acid gives up electrons as below:

These Zn + + ions pass into the electrolyte, and their concentration is very high near the zinc electrode. As a result of
the above oxidation reaction, the zinc electrode is left negatively charged and hence acts as cathode. The diluted
sulfuric acid and water disassociate into hydronium ions as given below:

Due to the high concentration of Zn +

ions near the cathode, the H3O+ ions are repelled towards the copper

electrode and get discharged by removing electrons from the copper atoms. The following reaction takes place at
the anode:

As a result of the reduction reaction taking place at copper electrode, copper is left positively charged and hence it
acts as the anode.

Daniell Battery Cell: The Daniell cell consists of a copper vessel containing copper sulfate solution. The copper
vessel itself acts as the positive electrode. A porous pot containing diluted sulfuric acid is placed in the copper
vessel. An amalgamated zinc rod dipping inside the sulfuric acid acts as the negative electrode.
When the circuit is completed, diluted sulfuric acid in the porous pot reacts with zinc so as to liberate hydrogen gas.
The reaction takes place as below:

The formation of ZnSO4 in the porous pot does not a ect the working of the cell, until crystals of ZnSO4 are
deposited.
The hydrogen gas passes through the porous pot and reacts with the CuSO4 solution as below:

Copper so formed gets deposited on the copper vessel.

Objective Questions on Battery (MCQs)

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