Battery

A battery is a device that stores energy, and is a source of power (usually electric) with connections for powering devices. There are many types and sizes of batteries, and they power devices ranging from miniature hearing aids and watches, torches, portable electronics such as cameras, laptops and mobile phones, vehicles, entire buildings as a form of backup power, and even have a place in grid energy storage.

Around 250 B.C. the Baghdad Battery may have been the first battery every invented, even if it was by accident. In 1938, while in Baghdad, German archeologist Wilhelm König discovered a clay jar containing a copper cylinder that surrounded an iron rod. The jar showed signs of corrosion and seemed to have once contained a mild acid, such as vinegar or wine. König believed these vessels to be galvanic cells, or parts of batteries, possibly used for electroplating gold onto silver objects. The acidic solution would serve as an electrolyte, or conducting medium. Replicas of the Baghdad Battery do indeed produce electrical current

In 1800, Alessandro Volta invented the first true battery, a voltaic pile consisting of pairs of copper and zinc discs piled on top of each other, separated by a layer of cloth or cardboard soaked in brine (the electrolyte). Similar electrochemical cell batteries were invented, but all would be permanently drained when all their chemical reactions were spent.

In 1859, Gaston Planté invented the lead–acid battery, the first-ever battery that could be recharged by passing a reverse current through it. The lead-acid battery or 'gel cell' is still used today for vehicles and backup power.

In 1886, Carl Gassner invented the 1.5 volt dry cell. This was the first convenient battery for the masses and made portable electrical devices practical, and led directly to the invention of the flashlight.

The 20th century saw the advent of alkaline battery (using alkaline electrolytes). Seeing a way to make a profit in the lead-acid battery market, Thomas Edison patented an alkaline based nickel–iron battery in 1901. This achieved great success in rail vehicles, providing backup power for railroad crossing signals, or power for the lamps used in mines, or in the "Exide" and other brands later. Other combinations, such as zinc–carbon, nickel-hydrogen and nickel metal-hydride came along, and prices dropped.

3 volt cells made from Nickel–cadmium (NiCd), nickel–zinc (NiZn), nickel metal hydride (NiMH) and lithium-ion (Li-ion) came to market from the 1970s and are still used now in a wide range of devices such as cameras, toys and electronics.

The breakthrough came with the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery. Lithium is the metal with lowest density and with the greatest electrochemical potential and energy-to-weight ratio. Akira Yoshino invented a rechargeable and more stable version in 1985, and Sony commercialized the lithium-ion battery in 1991. In 2019, John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their development of lithium-ion batteries.

In 2017 a new type of solid-state battery (using solid electrodes and electrolytes) was developed by a team led by lithium-ion battery inventor John Goodenough, "that could lead to safer, faster-charging, longer-lasting rechargeable batteries for handheld mobile devices, electric cars and stationary energy storage".

Nanoball batteries are an experimental type of battery with either the cathode or anode made of nanosized balls that can be composed of various materials such as carbon and lithium iron phosphate. Improvements have to be made before they become a viable option to replace current batteries. Future research would include trying to integrate the nanoballs into the cathode of a lithium cell or merging nanoballs with other materials like silicon in batteries.

A nanowire battery uses nanowires to increase the surface area of one or both of its electrodes. In 2016, researchers at the University of California, Irvine announced the invention of a nanowire material. After cycling a test electrode about 200,000 times, no loss of capacity or power, nor fracturing of any nanowires occurred. The technology could lead to batteries that are reliable, resistant to failure, and may never need to be replaced in most applications.

Sodium-ion batteries have received much academic and commercial interest in the 2020s to complement lithium-ion batteries, due to the high environmental impact and high cost of many of the elements required for lithium-ion batteries.

In the far future a Type II civilization would typically employ a Q-battery that allows the extraction and manipulation of the stored vacuum energy contained in depleted Q-balls, each of which stores 8000kg of energy but has mass-energy equivalence of only 31.46 grams. Large, industrial scale Q-mirrors can be used to convert large quantities of matter to antimatter - sometimes billions of tons at a time - and then be rapidly converted into large numbers of extremely compact and powerful energy sources.

News

 * Tesla to switch to lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) chemistry in their cars.
 * Future batteries that charge in seconds, last months and power over the air.
 * Latest in sodium-sulfur batteries.