What is a 'battery'?

A 'battery' is an arrangement in which a number of cells are connected in series. Even a single cell is sometimes referred to as a battery. In a strict sense, such a usage is incorrect. The various batteries or cells may be classified mainly into the following two types : Primary cells

What is an example of a primary battery?

Examples are zinc–carbon (Leclanché) cells, alkaline zinc–manganese dioxide cells, and metal–air-depolarized batteries. Primary lithium cells are now available. After use, primary batteries are discarded or, if legally (environmentally) required or for material cost-saving reasons, chemically reprocessed.

What type of batteries store electrical energy?

These are the most common batteries, the ones with the familiar cylindrical shape. There are no batteries that actually store electrical energy; all batteries store energy in some other form.

What are the different types of chemical storage batteries?

There are two fundamental types of chemical storage batteries: the rechargeable, or secondary cell, and the non-rechargeable, or primary cell. In terms of storing energy or discharging electricity, they are similar, it is simply a question of whether or not the chemical processes involved permit multiple charging and discharging.

Can a primary battery be recharged?

Primary cells cannot be recharged; they are storers of electrical energy which comes from elsewhere. However, one cannot feed fuel to them from a tank, as with fuel cells, so they are not continuous energy converters either. The battery used for electric torches is a primary battery.

How does a battery work?

When a battery consists of more than one galvanic cell, the cells are usually connected in series—that is, with the positive (+) terminal of one cell connected to the negative (−) terminal of the next, and so forth. The overall voltage of the battery is therefore the sum of the voltages of the individual cells.