Battery & Electronics

A battery is an electrochemical energy storage system powered directly by electrical current. more...

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It is a device made of two or more electrochemical cells, which store chemical energy and make it available in an electrical form. There are many types of electrochemical cells, including galvanic cells, electrolytic cells, fuel cells, flow cells, and voltaic cells. Formally, an electrical "battery" is an array of similar voltaic cells ("cells") connected in series. However, in many contexts it is common to call a single cell a battery. A battery's characteristics may vary due to many factors including internal chemistry, current drain, and temperature.

There are two types of batteries, primary (disposable) and secondary (rechargeable), both of which convert chemical energy to electrical energy. Primary batteries can only be used once because they use up their chemicals in an irreversible reaction. Secondary batteries can be recharged because the chemical reactions they use are reversible; they are recharged by running a charging current through the battery, but in the opposite direction of the discharge current. Rechargeable batteries can be charged hundreds of times before wearing out; and even after wearing out some can be recycled.

Although an early form of battery may have been used in antiquity, the modern development of batteries started with the Voltaic pile, invented by the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta in 1800. Since then, batteries have gained popularity as they became portable and useful for many purposes. The widespread use of batteries has created many environmental concerns, such as toxic metal pollution. Many reclamation companies recycle batteries to reduce the number of batteries going into landfills.

Generally, battery life can be prolonged by storing the battery in a cool place and using it at an appropriate current.

History

The first known artifacts that may have served as batteries are the Baghdad Batteries, which existed some time between 250 BC and 640 AD, although this is unproven and controversial. The modern story of the battery begins in the 1780s with the discovery of "animal electricity" by Luigi Galvani, which he published in 1791. He created an electric circuit consisting of two different metals, with one touching a frog's leg and the other touching both the leg and the first metal, thus closing the circuit. In modern terms, the frog's leg served as both electrolyte and detector, and the metals served as electrodes. He noticed that even though the frog was dead, its legs would twitch when he touched them with the metals.

Read more at Wikipedia.org