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How is electricity stored in any battery?
Batteries are those devices that accept, store and release electricity on demand. But, there are no batteries that actually store electrical energy; all batteries store energy in some other form. Batteries store energy in the form of chemical potential, just like many other everyday energy sources.
For example, gasoline or petrol store chemical potential energy until it is converted to mechanical energy in a car engine, logs or timber store energy in their chemical bonds until burning converts the energy to heat.
Likewise, for a battery to work, electricity must be converted into a chemical potential form before it can be easily stored. A battery has two electrical terminals called the cathode and the anode, separated by a chemical material called an electrolyte. To accept and release energy, a battery is connected to an external circuit, where electrons move through the circuit, while simultaneously ions (atoms or molecules with an electric charge) move through the electrolyte. In a rechargeable battery, electrons and ions can flow in any direction through the circuit and electrolyte.
When the electrons flow from the cathode to the anode, they increase the chemical potential energy, thereby charging the battery, and when they move in the other direction, they convert this chemical potential energy to electricity in the circuit and discharge the battery. Throughout the charging or discharging, the oppositely charged ions flow inside the battery through the electrolyte to balance the charge of the electrons moving through the external circuit and produce a sustainable, rechargeable system. Once charged, the battery can be disconnected from the circuit to store chemical potential energy to be used later as electricity.
To understand the working of a battery, have a look at a Lithium-Ion battery, which is commonly used in laptops, smartphones, electric cars, etc.
It consists of the following materials-
1. Cathode - It stores Lithium and releases Lithium ions when the battery is charging.
2. Positive current collector - It receives electrons from the external circuit during discharging of the battery from the negative current collector.
3. Anode - It stores Lithium and releases lithium ions when the battery is charging.
4. Negative current collector - It receives electrons from the external circuit during charging of the battery from the positive current collector.
5. Separator - It allows lithium ions to flow freely from the anode to cathode and vice-versa. It also prohibits the flow of electrons inside the battery structure.
6. Electrolyte - It is a liquid that acts as a transporter of lithium ions.
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