22 Years' Battery Customization
Mar 11, 2021 Pageview：1006
Well, there is no point of doubt in the fact that energy can’t be destroyed or created; however, it can always be stored in some form. One of the most popular and easiest ways of storing energy is in the form of chemical energy in a cell or battery. It is a fact that when a battery is connected to a circuit, it produces electricity. But have you ever spared some time in thinking about how does it happen in the first place?
The simple answer to this is that when a battery is put to use in an electronic device, it starts converting the chemical form of energy into the electrical energy. Now, there is a whole other process behind this, and in order to understand it, it is important to learn about the terminals of the battery and the way it works.
You might already know that a battery possesses two unique ends, i.e., a positive terminal, and the other one is known as a negative terminal. In other words, the positive terminal is also called as a cathode, and the negative terminal is also known as an anode. When these two terminals of a battery are connected through a wire, a circuit can be easily formed. Electrons will flow via the wire, due to which an electric current is produced.
In the battery, depending on the properties of chemicals, a reaction takes place, but it is extremely significant to highlight that a reaction will only take place when there is a proper flow of electrons in the battery; otherwise, there won’t be any production of electrical energy. You might have observed quite a few times that it is easy to store batteries for a long time because after storing them over a long period of time, they will still work as there is no form of chemical process happening.
For the chemical process to occur in a battery, it is significant that electrons flow from the negative terminal to the positive terminal one via a circuit. Now, before knowing which point is at high potential, it is essential to learn about the basics of a battery and, most importantly, how electrons are produced and flow from one terminal to the other to produce electrical energy in a battery.
There are numerous chemical reactions that take place in a battery; at the negative terminal, i.e., anode, the electrode tends to react with the electrolyte of the battery in a reaction that produces a different number of electrons. These electrons collect at the anode, and on the other hand, different chemical reactions take place at the cathode, which is called as the positive terminal of the battery that allows that electrode to accept and allow the flow of electrons. The chemical reactions on two electrodes happen simultaneously.
Reduction-oxidation reaction is the technical term for the chemical reactions of exchange of electrons in a battery. It is imperative here to understand that the whole chemical reaction can be divided into 2 half-reactions. When it comes to an electrochemical cell, one half-reaction takes place at the anode, and another one occurs at the cathode.
Also, there are basically two points of electric potential in any given electric field that are important to understand. There is a point that carries higher potential and a point that has low potential. At the positive charge, there will be the highest potential energy, and on the other side, at the low potential point, the charges will have the lowest potential energy.
In order to understand about the high potential and low potential in the electricity, it is vital to go back into history. Prior to the innovation of atomic structure, all the learned scientists used to believe that the positive charge in the electricity flows from the point where it is more in number to the point where the positive charge is less in number. Therefore, the point where there was more number of positive charges was known as the higher potential in the electricity.
The point at which there are no positive charges and more number of negative charges are present is called as the lower potential. But after the discovery of the atomic structure, all the scientists started believing that it is electrons, i.e., negatively charged particles, that flow, and in reality, the higher potential is something that is electron rich negative. But it is the fact that negative electrons flow from the negative electrode, and they get attracted by ions that are positively charged and are present at the positive terminal of the battery and flow towards it only.
In a nutshell, it would be appropriate here to proclaim that a higher potential is that point where there is a high concentration of charges. The low potential is that point where there are lesser or no concentrations of charges. In historic times, all the scientists were of the opinion that a positive charge is something that flows and moves to another electrode.
You might have observed that when you let go of a fruit you are holding in your hand, it falls on the earth; well, it happens because the earth has a gravitational pull in it which helps in pulling the fruit down. In this same way, electrons (which are the charged particles) need to do something in order to flow from one point to the other. The amount of work per unit charge is also known as the electric potential difference between the two different points.
Volt is known as the unit of potential difference. The potential difference between anode and cathode generates due to chemical reaction. In the battery, all the electrons are pushed and moved to the positive end because of the chemical reaction; thus, it creates a potential difference.
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