What is Electric Battery ?

This made battery transportation a very careful endeavor, and most batteries were never intended to be moved once attached to the circuit.

In 1866, Georges Leclanché created a battery using a zinc anode, a manganese dioxide cathode, and an ammonium chloride solution for the electrolyte.

While the electrolyte in the Leclanché cell was still a liquid, the battery’s chemistry proved to be an important step for the invention of the dry cell.

Carl Gassner figured out how to create an electrolyte paste out of ammonium chloride and Plaster of Paris. He patented the new “dry cell” battery in 1886 in Germany.

These new dry cells, commonly called “zinc-carbon batteries,” were massed produced and proved hugely popular until the late 1950s.

While carbon is not used in the chemical reaction, it performs an important role as an electrical conductor in the zinc-carbon battery.

In the 1950s, Lewis Urry, Paul Marsal, and Karl Kordesch of the Union Carbide company (later known as “Eveready” and then “Energizer”) replaced the ammonium chloride electrolyte with an alkaline substance, based on the battery chemistry formulated by Waldemar Jungner in 1899.

Alkaline dry cell batteries could hold more energy than zinc carbon batteries of the same size and had a longer shelf life.

Alkaline batteries rose in popularity in the 1960s, overtook zinc-carbon batteries, and have since become the standard primary cell for consumer use.

In the 1970s, COMSAT developed the nickel-hydrogen battery for use in communication satellites.

These batteries store hydrogen in a pressurized, gaseous form. Many man-made satellites, like the International Space Station, still rely on nickel-hydrogen batteries.

The research of several companies since the late 1960s resulted in the createion of the nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery.

NiMH batteries were released to the consumer market in 1989, and provided a smaller, cheaper alternative to the rechargeable nickel-hydrogen cells.

Asahi Chemical of Japan built the first lithium-ion battery in 1985, and Sony created the first commercial lithium-ion battery in 1991.

In the late 1990s, a soft, flexible casing was created for lithium-ion batteries and gave rise to the “lithium polymer” or “LiPo” battery.

Obviously, many more battery chemistries have been invented, manufactured, and become obsolete.

If you would like to read more about modern, popular battery technologies, check out our Battery Technologies tutorial.

Batteries are made up of three basic components: an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte.

A separator is often used to prevent the anode and cathode from touching, if the electrolyte is not sufficient.

In order to store these components, batteries usually have some kind of casing.

Both the anode and cathode are types of electrodes. Electrodes are conductors through which electricity enters or leaves a component in a circuit.

Electrons flow out from the anode in a device connected to a circuit. This means that conventional “current” flows into an anode.

Electrons flow into the cathode in a device connected to a circuit. This means that conventional “current” flows out from a cathode.

The electrolyte is the substance, often a liquid or gel, that is capable of transporting ions between the chemical reactions that happen at the anode and cathode.

The electrolyte also inhibits the flow of electrons between the anode and cathode so that the electrons more easily flow through the external circuit rather than through the electrolyte.