Battery | History and Working Principle of

Batteries
Under Basic Electrical
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 first 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 different 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.

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 electro-chemical 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 different.

History of 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 filled with an acidic
liquid, they produced a potential difference of around 2 volts
between the iron and copper. These clay jars are suspected to be
2000 year old battery cells
In 1786, Luigi Galvani, an Italian anatomist and physiologist was
surprised to see that when he touched a dead frogs leg with two
different metals, the muscles of the legs contracted. He could not
understand the actual reason why, otherwise he would have been
known as the first inventor of the battery cell. He thought the
reaction might be due to a property of the tissues.

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 difference between the copper and zinc. After that in 1800, he developed the
first 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 first "wet battery cell".
Thus, the history of battery began. 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.

In the year of 1859, Gaston Plante; first developed the lead acid battery cell. This was
the first 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 first 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, first, we
should have some basic concept of electrolytes and electrons
affinity. Actually, when two dissimilar metals or metallic compounds
are immersed in an electrolyte, there will be a potential difference
produced between these metals or metallic compounds.

It is found that, when some specific 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 affinity. As the atomic structure for different materials are different, the
electron affinity of different materials will differ. If two different 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
affinities of these metals or metallic compounds. The metal with low electron affinity
will gain electrons from the negative ions of the electrolyte solution. On the other

hand, the metal with high electron affinity 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 difference in electron concentration
between these two metals. This difference of electron concentration causes an
electrical potential difference to develop between the metals. This electrical potential
difference 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 first 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 fill 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 flowing
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 affect the working
of the cell, until crystals of ZnSO4 are deposited.
The hydrogen gas passes through the porous pot and reacts with the CuSO 4 solution as
below:

Copper so formed gets deposited on the copper vessel.