Your source for Digital Battery Information

Checkout | My Cart | My Account | Order Status | Login 
Digital Photography
35 mm Cameras
Lenses & Flashes
Photo Accessories
Film
Filters & Accessories
Inkjet Paper & Ink
Binoculars
Tripods & Supports
Photo Paper
Video
Laptop Batteries
Battery Finder
SPECIALS
CONTACT US
SHIPPING INFO.
PRIVACY POLICY
RETURN POLICY
PARTNER LINKS
SITE INDEX


BizRate Customer Certified (GOLD) Site

HACKER SAFE certified sites prevent over 99% of hacker crime.
 
 
Home Filters & Accessories
 
The Chemistry of Digital Camera & Camcorder Batteries - How they work  

Overview of Battery Chemical Mechanism

As the Conservation of Energy Theorem states, energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be saved in various forms. One of the ways to store it is in the form of chemical energy in a battery. When connected in a circuit, a battery can produce electricity.


If you look at a battery, it will have two ends -- a positive terminal and a negative terminal (note that the naming of negative and positive is really arbitrary, but let us not get too deep here). If you connect the two terminals with wire, a circuit is formed. Electrons will flow through the wire and a current of electricity is produced.


Inside the battery, a reaction between the chemicals takes place. But reaction takes place only if there is a flow of electrons. Batteries can be stored for a long time and still work because the chemical process doesn't start until the electrons flow from the negative to the positive terminals through a circuit.

 

Details of the Chemical Reaction

Let us examine the zinc-carbon battery (sometimes called the carbon battery) to see an example of the chemical reaction that is a battery cell. This battery contains acidic material within and a rod of zinc down the center. Here's where knowing a little bit of chemistry helps.

When zinc is inserted into an acid, the acid begins to eat away at the zinc, releasing hydrogen gas and heat energy. The acid molecules break up into its components: usually hydrogen and other atoms. The process releases electrons from the Zinc atoms that combine with hydrogen ions in the acid to create the hydrogen gas. If a rod of carbon is inserted into the acid, the acid does nothing to it. But if you connect the carbon rod to the zinc rod with a wire, creating a circuit, electrons will begin to flow through the wire and combine with hydrogen on the carbon rod. This still releases a little bit of hydrogen gas but it makes less heat. Some of that heat energy is the energy that is flowing through the circuit.


The energy in that circuit can now light a light bulb in a flashlight or turn a small motor. Depending on the size of the battery, it can even start an automobile. Eventually, the zinc rod is completely dissolved by the acid in the battery, and the battery can no longer be used.

Coming soon....The future of batteries... >>>

 
 
  Copyright © 2003 EastCoastPhoto All rights reserved | Mail us: info@eastcoastphoto.com