WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: The Evolution of Batteries 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to text Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:15.200 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:18.440 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:22.119 and I love all things tech and today it's time 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:26.160 for another classic episode of tech Stuff. This episode originally 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:30.800 published on June third, two thirteen. It is titled The 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:34.879 Evolution of Batteries. So we talk all about how batteries 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:38.200 were first invented and then how they changed over time. 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:41.040 I'm sure you'll get a real charge out of it. 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:44.479 Let's listen. You have something called Moore's law. That's that 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:49.640 observation that in general, microprocessors get twice the number of 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:51.640 discrete elements, or if you prefer to think of it 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:54.720 in another way, microprocessors tend to get twice as powerful 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:59.200 every two years or so. Yeah. This is not exponential growth, 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:01.760 which I have called it in previous episodes, by the way, 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:04.080 and people right in every time and call it. Take 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:08.039 us to task on it, which is important because it's 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:11.600 a misuse of the word exponential. I'm using it's a 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:14.039 colloquial use, but I do not want to go down 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:16.760 that hole again because I'm like you, guys, I get 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:19.679 irritated when people misuse words too. I just wish I 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:22.240 didn't do it as frequently myself, But anyway, it does 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:26.760 double every two years or so, and that's a phenomenal 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:30.600 amount of growth. We're talking about microprocessors that have billions 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:32.880 of discrete elements on them now, and they're all down 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:35.959 at the nano scale. So there's this amazing amount of 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:41.080 technology that's been poured into microprocessors, partially because More's Law 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.760 exists and companies strive to to keep up with it, 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:47.560 to maintain it because Moore's Law, as we know it 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.200 is not a real physical law. It's more of an observation, 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:52.520 and companies no one wants to be the company that 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.240 comes up and says, yeah, we can't do that. You know, 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:58.040 we just got bored. So it means that there's been 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:00.240 a lot of innovation in that space. But mean, while 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:04.880 on the battery front, batteries have in large part remain 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.480 more or less the same for decades. I mean, we've 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:11.600 we've seen improvements in battery life, we've seen improvements in 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:16.000 battery efficiency, but there have been some new technologies over 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:20.240 the past fifty years. But even so, it just hasn't 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:24.200 it hasn't at all kept up with the microprocessors assessor side. 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:26.200 This is also, by the way, this ties into our 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.680 episodes where we talked about things like the Singularity, where 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:32.880 we talk about how technology doesn't all progress at the 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:36.280 same rate. So while we do see devices getting more 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:40.440 and more sophisticated and powerful, uh, the power supplies aren't 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:44.160 keeping up with that trend. So it may be that 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:47.360 the singularity, if it is ever going to arrive, is 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.360 further off than what some people think simply because the 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:54.400 power side of the equation is lagging behind, uh, the 0:02:54.400 --> 0:03:00.200 the technological sophistication side. So why is that. Well to 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:03.240 understand that, we kind of have to one talk about 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:05.800 what a battery is and to sort of look at 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.160 the history of the development of batteries and talk about 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:12.400 what exactly it does. Now on a very very basic level, 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:17.560 a battery is something that uses electrochemical reactions so that 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:21.880 you can guide electrons through a circuit and have it 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:24.720 do work. And that's about it. Yeah, that's that's really 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:28.280 all a battery is. And it's because there are certain 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:32.240 chemicals that when they have these reactions, they lose electrons 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:34.440 in the process, and if you are able to control 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.680 the flow of those electrons. Then you've got a battery. 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:42.040 So batteries date back possibly as long as though more 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:46.160 than two thousand years ago. Yeah, these these clay jars 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:49.120 found in modern day Iraq and you might have might 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:51.720 have heard of them called Bagdad batteries where um, yeah, 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:54.360 clay jars that contained an iron rod en cased in copper. 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:57.280 Tests suggest that the jars were at some point filled 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:00.280 with with with something acidic like vinegar or wine, and 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.640 modern day replicas have successfully created an electric charge. They 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:05.600 might have been used for something like a like any 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:09.760 anything from religious rituals and medicinal purposes to even electro plating. Right, 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:12.640 And if you've seen if you're a big MythBusters fan, 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:15.320 you may have seen an episode where they actually showed 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:18.120 these They created one of these batteries and then they 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:20.000 tried to see if they could get enough of a 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:23.200 charge for it to be detectable. Um, so that that's 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:26.960 an indication of that we were familiar with the fact 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:32.520 that certain materials, under certain circumstances could omit this weird energy. 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:34.920 Now at that time we weren't necessarily really aware of 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:37.360 all the things that could do, but that would change 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:40.600 as the centuries would pass. The next big date I 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:46.680 have is quite some time later, which is and that's 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:52.360 when Alessandro Volta, Count Alessandro Volta, he's only one. If 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:55.279 there were more than one, I would killt him. Oh, sorry, 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:59.760 you're talking about a nobility rank. So Count Volta created 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:04.080 a battery by stacking alternating layers of zinc. Lawrence just 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:09.040 checked out at this point zinc, brine, soaked cloth or paper, uh, 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:11.720 and silver. He used these alternating layers kind of a 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:16.119 sandwich here. And we call this a voltaic peel peel 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:20.120 because it's French and uh and and voltaic after volta, yes, 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:24.120 and so uh. The this this peel or pile if 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:27.800 you prefer, because it is a pile oh stuff. When 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:31.039 you put it in this this configuration, you start getting 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:34.920 these chemical reactions that emit electrons. And you could make 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:38.200 the stack taller and taller to get more electrons a 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:42.880 stronger flow of current through this peel. But in order 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:44.800 to do that, you actually had to stack it up 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:47.520 so high that eventually the weight from the top would 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:50.040 start to squish the layers on the bottom, which would 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.640 kind of make the brine soak out. And that would 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.120 make it less effective, and also the metal itself would 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:00.560 start to corrode fairly quickly from the brine and movement 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:04.640 the electrons. Right. It just wasn't wasn't a practical way 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:08.359 of generating electricity, but it showed the premise and it 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:11.839 gave scientists the idea of there's something here and if 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:14.360 we can figure out other ways of generating the same 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:16.400 kind of energy, we might be able to harness it 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:19.560 for something. Skipping ahead, I mean there there are lots 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:24.000 of different developments in this technology. I have two specific ones. 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:26.600 I think you have a few more. The next really 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:31.400 effective one um was eighty six. Yeah, John Frederick Daniel, 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.800 who was an English physicist. He created what we now 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:38.839 call the Daniel cell, which was a you take a 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:41.240 glass jar and on the bottom of the glass jar 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:43.800 you put on in a copper plate, so copper plate 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:45.400 in the bottom of the glass jar, and there's a 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:47.880 wire from the copper plate that comes out of the jar. 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:52.880 Then you pour copper sulfate on top of that copper 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:56.680 plate to about the halfway point of the jar. Then 0:06:56.720 --> 0:07:00.640 you suspend a zinc plate in the jar, and then 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:05.039 you pour zinc sulfate solution on top of the zinc plate. Now, 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:09.479 zinc sulfate is less dense than copper sulfate, so zinc 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:12.520 sulfate will float on top of copper sulfate. If you've 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.480 ever played with liquids of different densities that had different colors, 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:17.480 then you know what I'm talking about. You can see 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.760 that actual level of division. Yeah, it's actually it's one 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:22.400 of my favorite things. I just think it's super cool 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:24.640 when it When I see that, I'm easily amused, I 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:28.400 admit it. But anyway, you also have a wire coming 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:32.720 from the zinc plate uh and exiting the jar. So 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:35.600 a wire attached to this would become that that zinc 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:38.440 plate becomes the negative terminal that's where the electrons are 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:41.760 flowing from, and the copper plate becomes the positive terminal 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.560 that's where electrons are flowing too. And so if you 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:47.840 were to connect the two wires together, it would very 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:50.600 quickly burn out this battery. But if you were to 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:53.880 connect it to a circuit, it could actually do uh, 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:55.920 it could or a load as we call it, It It 0:07:55.960 --> 0:08:00.200 could actually do work. So again, not terribly practical. It 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:04.080 it was useful for anything that was stationary. But you 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:07.360 know you're talking about a liquid battery here. So it's 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:09.240 not something that you could easily carry around or put 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.240 into portable electronics, right right, Yeah, and there's there's a 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:15.600 lot of a lot more elegant ways of getting that 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:18.440 that electrol kind of solution of of you know, just 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:22.440 just a charged molecule then yeah, yeah, And it wouldn't 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:25.120 be until we developed dry cell battery technology that we 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:29.559 started to find practical ways of using it in portable means, 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.120 you know. And even then, you know, the batteries weren't 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:34.800 small enough to use in what we consider portable electronics today, 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:37.599 but you could move it around. Uh. The kind of 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:41.960 Daniel cells that that John Frederick Daniel created were useful 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:46.000 for different technologies, things like telephones. It was stuff that 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:48.559 back then you did not carry around. I don't know 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:51.520 if you kids know this, but telephones used to be 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:55.360 these things that were extremely stationary. It's only recently that 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:59.400 we started carrying them around. Uh. Anyway, that's the kind 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:02.079 of battery that became popular for that. Uh. Now, did 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:03.640 you have any other ones who wanted to talk about 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:07.440 before we move onto the basics of batteries. Rechargeable batteries, 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:10.920 The science for that started um started with research around 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:14.200 eighteen fifty nine or so when a French physicist, Gaston 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:19.120 Plant invented the lead acid cell um and that that 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:21.640 was a that was a precursor to to modern day 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:25.239 car batteries. So there you have, you know, the discovery 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:28.120 that this chemical reaction that takes place within a battery, 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:30.640 you get compounds that form out of it, and it 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:35.000 makes the battery over time less effective. That's why batteries die. Eventually, 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.920 the active elements that would create the flow of electrons 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:42.599 end up combining with other stuff and for the purposes 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:47.240 of of passing a current through a circuit, they become 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:50.360 a nert. Yeah. Yeah, something either wears out or um 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:54.320 or maybe the the anode or cathode could could dissolve 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:57.320 in the solution. Right, you just essentially what it means 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:59.680 is that you run out of the stuff you need 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.080 in order to make it to make this go, right, 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:06.920 and so what what was it? Plant believe? Yes, what 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:10.840 Plant discovered was that for some kinds of solutions, if 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:14.600 you were to pass electric current through the system as 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:19.160 opposed to siphoning it off, you could reverse this process 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:21.400 and yeah, and create a battery that can be used 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:24.079 more than once. Right Now, this does not work for 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:27.000 all batteries, which is why you can't just throw any 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:30.320 regular battery into a recharger and expect it to come 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.760 out fine. If you did that to a to a 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.360 you know, to adrist cell or something like that, mostly 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:39.440 just explode. Right that these are has to be batteries 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:42.679 that are using specific uh compounds in it for it 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:45.560 to have this this reversible reaction, because not all compounds 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:48.600 will reverse some of them once they're done, they're done 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:50.720 and battery. We will talk about that a little bit 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.240 a little bit later, but but let's let's talk about 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:57.440 how how exactly this this circuitry works. Okay, So, if 0:10:57.480 --> 0:10:59.439 you've ever looked at a battery, you've seen that there's 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.400 a side that is labeled as a plus and one 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:05.480 that's labeled as a minus. So positive and negative. If 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:07.679 you're looking at like a nine volt battery, then they're 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:10.200 next to each other. If you're looking at double a's 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:12.040 or whatever, then it's on one end and the other. 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:16.640 So the negative end the that's where the electrons flow 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:20.920 out of. That's the electrons flow from that end through 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:24.440 a circuit and into the positive end. Uh. Now we 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.920 know that you know the uh, the opposite charges attract, 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:30.120 so that's why the negative wants to get to the positive. 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:35.320 And inside the the the battery itself, there is a 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:38.800 chemical called or a compound called an electro light. Now 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:41.840 the electro light has a very important job. It blocks 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:44.400 those electrons from just passing from the negative side to 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:48.439 the positive side directly direct That would burn, burn everything out. Yeah, 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:50.880 that you wouldn't have You wouldn't be able to power anything. 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:53.000 The battery would just you would just have a chemical 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:55.920 reaction inside a canister and it would be dead within 0:11:56.360 --> 0:12:01.000 however long it took for those reactions. Yeah. Um. So 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:04.800 it does allow ions to pass through, but not electrons, 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:08.439 and that becomes important. So the negative terminal is connected 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:12.480 to something that's called the anode, the positive terminal is 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.720 connected to what we call the cathode, and these together 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:19.240 are the electrodes of a battery. Then you've got the 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:21.959 separator between the anode and the cathode that's presenting that's 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.200 preventing those two sides from reacting to each other. And 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:26.760 you have the electro light that allows the electric charge 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:30.199 to flow between cathode and anode, allowing the ions to 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:33.120 pass through. While making sure the electrons don't. And then 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:35.160 you have a collector, which is the part of the 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:37.400 battery that conducts the charge to the outside of the 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:40.720 battery and through whatever the load is, the electronic load, 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:45.240 so the circuit um. So within that anode side, the 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:49.439 negative side, the chemical reaction that takes place is called oxidation. 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.920 It's an oxidation reaction. This ends up releasing ions, and 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:56.959 the ions move through the electro light to combine on 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:01.400 UH the other side, and then you've got uh the 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:05.440 release of electrons that go through the circuitry. On the 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:09.160 catholic side, you've got the reduction reaction. That's where the 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:13.239 catholic material and the ions UH combine with the electrons 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:17.440 that are coming in through the circuit that they form 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:20.960 a new compound. And so essentially you've got the anode 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:24.240 freeing up electrons, the cathode accepting electrons, and the electrons 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:27.200 do work along the way. So if you were to 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:30.840 actually connect a wire from the negative terminal to the 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:34.760 positive terminal, you would allow that that pathway to be 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:36.920 open and it would just start to burn up that 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:42.800 battery pretty quickly. Don't do that. It's a waste of batteries. 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:45.120 It's going to heat up that wire. It doesn't do 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.800 anything other than kill your battery. But but that's what happens. 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:51.800 It's so when you've got it plugged into something, whenever 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:54.679 you turn the switch on to whatever it is, whether 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:58.920 it's a you know, a lightsaber or a phaser. You know, 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:02.719 I allow all lines of science fiction toys for batteries. 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:05.080 But whenever you turn it on, it opens up that 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:08.160 circuit and that allows the electrons to flow through. And 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:11.040 when you turn it off, then the one of the 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:15.079 gates gets closed essentially, and you no longer the connection 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:18.600 is no longer there. So the battery stops the chemical reaction. 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:20.520 It has to have that pathway open for the chemical 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:24.960 reaction to keep going. Now, there are several different basic 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:28.000 types of batteries that are out there, and we're just 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:30.000 going to cover a couple of them, and we're covering 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:33.640 them based upon the stuff that's inside them, right, because 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:35.760 there's a whole bunch of different substances that you can 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:39.840 use to create these reactions. Like like we said, so yeah, so, 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:43.320 so one basic type is the is alkaline batteries. Uh, 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:47.080 the anode in alkaline batteries tends to be zinc powder. 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:49.280 So the anode again is that negative side that's where 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:52.840 the electrons are coming from. The cathode side has uh, 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:58.840 typically manganese dioxide, and the electrolyte is typically potassium hydroxide. 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:00.920 These are the kind of batteries that you typically find 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:03.760 in double a's, C and D batteries, right, and these 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:06.360 are all examples of This is an example of dry 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:10.120 cell batteries. Yes, which dry cell batteries. One of the 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:11.920 big benefits of those that you don't have to worry 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:15.080 about liquid slashing around inside the battery, so that allows 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:17.720 it to be used in lots of applications. You know, 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:21.160 anything that's liquid obviously you can't shake around too much 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:23.160 or else just gonna disrupt it and you're not gonna 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:26.680 have a working battery. For they're more they're more more volatile. Yeah, 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:28.680 you want that, you want that in a very uh 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:33.200 stationary position. Then you've got zinc carbon batteries. Uh. These 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:36.680 have an anode that has that's a zinc obviously uh, 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:39.040 and then you've got the manganese dioxide cathode. But the 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:42.720 electrolyte in this case is often either ammonium chloride or 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:45.920 zinc chloride. These are often found in triple A, double A, 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:49.160 C and D dry cell batteries. Then you've got lithium 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:54.480 ion batteries. These are the ones that we find in laptops, smartphones, cameras, 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:58.080 that kind of stuff. They are rechargeable batteries and they 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:02.440 have different materials in them. Uh uh. One common version 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:06.600 of lithium ion batteries uses a carbon note and a 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:11.320 lithium cobalt oxide cathode and uh and yeah, these are 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:13.760 the ones that we use when we're recharging our our 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:18.200 various electronics very frequently anyway. Then you've got lead acid batteries. 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:20.240 These are the ones that you often find in cars. 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.880 These are more heavy duty, right, they are more volatile. 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:28.520 They do include liquid, Yeah, they include their their their 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:31.240 electrolyte tends to be sulfuric acid. This is one of 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:33.040 the reasons why you want to be really careful with 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:36.080 car batteries because the materials inside them can be very 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:40.560 caustic and and they can damage you, your stuff, your car. 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:42.440 That's why you know you've got to be really careful 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:46.360 with these things. Um. They tend to have uh, lead 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:50.880 dioxide and metallic lead as their electrodes. So yeah, the 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:53.800 rechargeable battery we've already talked about. That's the kind where 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.680 if you put the electric current through the battery, you 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:02.640 reverse this uh, this chemical reaction. Uh. It depends upon 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:06.320 what that rechargeable battery is made from, whether how effective 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:10.320 this this process is right, because there's some kinds of 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:16.720 rechargeable batteries that have well they have a memory, and 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:19.840 that memory is not a good one. The memory effect 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:22.320 is what I'm talking about. So I don't know how 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:25.320 many of you are familiar with this, but if you've 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:28.520 ever heard someone say that before you recharge your device, 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:32.639 you should make sure that it's completely that the current 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:37.200 charges completely out. This was due to some some older 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:39.840 types of batteries that have been mostly replaced by lithium 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:45.200 ion batteries. Nickel cadmium is the main culprit here. So 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:48.159 the problem that some people notice with nickel cadmium is 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:50.879 that if you used a nickel cadmium battery for a 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.040 while and then you recharged it before you had completely 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:58.320 discharged the original charge, it wouldn't hold as much of 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:01.360 a charge the next time. So let's say that I've 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:04.119 got a device that has a nickel cadmium battery in 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:07.760 it and I run it down to about left like 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:10.119 it's it only has charge left, and I decided to 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:14.400 recharge it. Well, now it's new maximum charge is more 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:17.600 like eight of what it used to be because I 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:21.800 didn't let it go all. It remembers that but doesn't 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:26.879 let me actually consume that power anymore. So, yeah, that 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:30.280 was a problem. Now most batteries now don't have that issue. 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:33.360 I mean, there's still a minor memory effect in some 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:36.960 rechargeable batteries, but it's not nearly as dramatic as it 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:39.680 the older batteries were, right, So so yeah, so if 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.040 you are using the lithium ion battery and someone tells 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:44.320 you that thing, you can you can tell them that 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:47.200 we told you no, no, not as big a deal. 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:51.280 And another interesting thing about batteries is what happens if 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:54.800 you place them in series versus in parallel. So in 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:57.199 series it sounds kind of you know, is what it is. 0:18:57.280 --> 0:18:59.400 You've you've got them hooked up so that they are 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:02.840 all the charges running through one and then another and 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:07.560 then another yea in the sequence exactly. And uh, if 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:11.439 you do that, you increase the voltage of the output. Now, 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.479 if you put them in parallel, you increase the current. 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:17.520 Now you might wonder what's the differences voltage and current 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:19.800 if you're if you're not really familiar with electronics. I 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:23.919 always have to look this up because I I, I 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:28.160 always second guess myself. But voltage measures the energy per 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.160 unit charge. And you can think of that is it's 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:34.600 how strong the electrons are pushed through a circuit. So 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:38.160 think of it like water pressure, you know, through a hose. 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:40.520 So the greater the water pressure, the harder that water 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:43.960 is being pushed through the hose. That's essentially your voltage, 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:47.000 it's you know. And then current is the rate at 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:51.359 which electric charge passes through a circuit. Now, voltage will 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:54.920 stay constant, the voltage output will stay constant based upon 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:57.199 whatever kind of battery you have or whether or not 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:00.439 they're in series. Uh. But otherwise it it's going to 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:04.639 remain the same. Current, however, will vary depending upon the 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:08.680 load you place it. Uh, you place on it. So 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:13.160 and that can, like the resistance of a wire, can 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:17.760 affect what the current is. So current is variable. Voltage 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:21.040 is not. And uh, apart from the fact that if 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:22.840 you put them in series, you increase the voltage. But 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:27.159 once you've done that, it does not vary. Um. All right, 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:33.879 Well that's the basis the very basic foundation of batteries. Guys, 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:37.080 We're gonna have to take a quick break. I just 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:40.160 realized the podcast has runned out of batteries, So I'm 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:43.240 gonna go run across the street grab a couple more. Um, 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:53.360 I'll be right back. All right, So we're back. Uh, 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:56.240 And we've learned the basic function of a battery and 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:58.680 how it does what it does. So what's the problem. 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:03.879 Why haven't we made super batteries that last forever and 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:07.320 never need to be recharged and can put out more 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:11.840 energy than uh the generator? Yeah, well, I mean, you know, 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:16.800 there's the first commercial dry cell batteries premiered in and 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:20.120 they haven't really changed all that much since then. Yeah, 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:25.400 we've we've experimented with different materials, but the actual process 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:28.440 has remained very much the same. And there are physical 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:33.000 limits that chemical batteries have, but they can only generate 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:36.520 so much electricity through these reactions. There have been a 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:39.080 few permutations of different things. In addition to those nickel 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:43.320 cadmium batteries that that have the memory effect problem that 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:45.680 we mentioned earlier. There's there was also some some nickel 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:49.200 metal hydride, but they had a really short shelf life. 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:52.800 They would start degrading pretty quickly. Yeah. That's another thing 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:55.720 about some types of batteries is that lithium ion batteries 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:58.679 have that problem as well. Um, they're they're less bad 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:01.240 at it, but they're still not deal right. The idea 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:04.479 being that these these chemical reactions, like the longer the 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:10.600 battery sits idle, the less juice. Yeah, and and and 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:12.040 this doesn't have anything to do with how much you 0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:15.240 use it. It's it's from the moment that they're made. Yeah. Yeah. 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:18.520 And also you may have heard stories about, well, if 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:22.040 you want to keep your batteries from the grading, you 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:24.240 should put them in the refrigerator. Don't do that. Don't 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:26.560 do that because that actually it actually slows down the 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:32.040 chemical processes that happen when you Yeah, when you're when 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:33.960 you're trying to use the battery, and you're going to 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:36.280 not get as much juice as you thought you were 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:39.360 because the chemicals themselves are too cold to have those 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:42.000 chemical reactions happen at the correct rate. They're still going 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:46.520 to happen, but you're gonna get a easily amount of 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:49.520 juice out of it. Right, So, so far lithium ion batteries, 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:53.320